Juan
Roberto Melendez-Colon
Juan Roberto Melendez-Colon spent 17 years, eight months, and one day on Florida’s death row for a crime he did not commit. Upon his exoneration and release from death row on January 3, 2002, he became the 99th death row prisoner in the country to be exonerated and released since 1973.
There was no physical evidence ever linking Juan to the crime, and his conviction and death sentence hinged on the testimony of two questionable witnesses. Despite his innocence, Juan’s conviction and death sentence were upheld on appeal three times by the Florida Supreme Court. In September 2000, 16 years after Juan was convicted and sentenced to death, a long-forgotten transcript of a taped confession by the real killer was fortuitously discovered. Ultimately, it came to light that the real killer made statements to no less than 16 individuals either directly confessing to the murder or stating that Juan was not involved.
In a 72-page opinion in which she overturned Juan’s conviction and death sentence and ordered a new trial, Judge Barbara Fleischer went to tremendous lengths to underscore the injustices that Juan had faced. She chastised the prosecutor for withholding “crucial” evidence pertaining to the credibility of the state’s two critical witnesses and set forth in meticulous detail the newly discovered evidence. This evidence included numerous confessions and incriminating statements made by the real killer to friends, law enforcement officers, investigators and attorneys that substantiated the defense theory that Juan was innocent. Without admitting any wrongdoing, the state of Florida declined to pursue a new trial against Juan because one of its key witnesses had recanted and the other had died.
Upon his release from death row, without bitterness, anger or hatred toward those responsible for wrongfully convicting him and sentencing him to death, Juan has traveled throughout the United States and Europe, speaking to audiences about his story of supreme injustice – a story which underscores all of the problems of capital punishment and a story which is opening and changing hearts and minds about the death penalty.
Juan has presented at numerous colleges, law schools and conferences throughout the United States and Europe and touches audiences deeply with his incredibly personal approach. When he is not speaking to groups, Juan works in Puerto Rico in a plantain field, where he counsels troubled youth who work alongside him. As a former migrant farm worker, his idol and inspiration was, and continues to be, Cesar Chavez. He is a board member of Witness to Innocence and the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and an international spokesperson for the Canadian non-profit organization AIDWYC (Association in Defence of the Wrongfully Convicted).
“I pray to see the death penalty abolished in my time,” Juan says. “The death penalty, which is entirely unnecessary, causes nothing but more pain and suffering.”
While Juan is a native Spanish speaker, his English is excellent. Most of his presentations and media interviews are in English but he also conducts presentations and interviews in Spanish.