Life after death row

In 1992 Ray Krone, a former sergeant in the US Air Force, was sentenced to
death row for the murder of Kimberly Ancona, a bar manager found stabbed
to death in a restaurant near his home in Arizona. 10 years later, after
running newly developed DNA tests on the victim's clothes, he was found
innocent and freed. Krone was the 100th prisoner in the US to be
exonerated from death row. Now a campaigner against the death penalty, he
describes the long fight to clear his name

Being arrested was quite a surprise. On the day they found the body, they
brought me in to the police station and questioned me for 3 hours. I told
them everything I knew and thought that would be the end of it.

The next day they brought me to the police station to take blood and hair
samples, as well as dental casts of my teeth, and they questioned me for
yet another three hours. But again, I told them the truth. I knew I had
nothing to hide. The next day was New Years Eve, December 31, 1991; I'd
just got home and was in my driveway, getting out of my car, when all of a
sudden a van screeched up behind me, the doors flew open and people were
shouting "Freeze! Don't move!" Armed officers in full riot gear spilled
out of the van and arrested me right there.

Without any real evidence or any scientific support for it, the lead
detective decided that I was guilty, and he acted on it quickly. I worked
at the post office and it wasn't as if I was going anywhere. But within 2
days the analysis had come back confirming that my fingerprints,
footprints and hair had been found on the victims body. That stuff
couldn't possibly have come back from the lab in 2 days.

I knew the fingerprints and strands of hair at the crime scene weren't
mine. The footprints were of size 9 shoes and I'm a size 11. DNA testing
wasn't as prevalent then as it is now and they simply said that whatever
prints didnt match mine had nothing to do with the murder. The size 9
footprints at the crime scene were not only found in the kitchen where the
murder weapon a butcher's knife was taken from, but they were also on
the floor tiles next to where the body was discovered. I found out later
that whoever made the initial police report had changed the killer's
footprints to a size 11 to make it fit my profile, and when they went to
my house they couldn't match them to any of my shoes. But then they found
a local medical examiner who would testify that the bite marks on her body
matched my teeth.

It didn't matter what I said after that. It was like the frustration you
feel when you're a kid and your parents blame you for something your
brother or sister did, only this time it was a sharper intensity of pain
and lasted for a lot longer.

I was in contact with my sister regularly. I would tell her: "Don't worry
about it, I'll be out of here any minute." 7 months went by and I was put
on trial for murder, but I was still telling her it would all work out.
Then I got convicted and sent to death row. That was when it became a heck
of a burden on my mom and my family. I was the oldest in the family, and
had always been the responsible one my folks knew to trust me if I said
everything would be all right. Death row changed that.

When you get sent to death row you're in a little cell the size of most
people's bathroom and youre kept separate from all the other inmates. You
can see them in the distance and yell out to them, but you don't have any
physical contact. I realised in a short time that if I was going to fight
the system Id better get to know it. I started going to the law library,
reading up on case law.

Eventually it became known that the prosecutor had been withholding
evidence and the Arizona Supreme Court granted me a new trial. The judge
convicted me again, but said that there was lingering doubt of my guilt
and sentenced me to life imprisonment instead of death row.

In 2001 a new law was passed making it easier for inmates to request DNA
testing. The police still had items of the victim's clothing so I asked
the judge if I could have them tested. The prosecutor objected, as did the
attorney generals office, but nevertheless the judge ordered that it go
ahead. The Phoenix police department put some of the DNA into the
nationwide data bank, which is where the DNA of convicted felons all over
the US is stored, and it came back with a match. It was a man who had a
history of sexual assaults on women and children and lived 500 feet from
the bar in which the murder took place.

I remember that day clearly from start to finish. It was April 8, 2002. A
Friday. It began as just another day in prison but at noon I was told my
attorney was on the phone. He asked me how I was doing and I said: "Oh you
know, fine, just another day in paradise." He laughed and said: "What are
you hungry for, Ray?" and I said that I guessed I'd eat whatever was in
the chow hall. But he kept on and said: "No really, you want steak,
seafood? How about a Margarita?" I asked him what the devil he was talking
about and thats when he said: "I just got off the phone with the
prosecutor's office. They're cutting the paperwork. You're going home
today." My heart stopped; I couldn't breathe. 2 hours later I walked out
of prison. I kept looking over my shoulder in case theyd made a mistake.

What that prosecutor did, hiding evidence while at the same time actively
pursuing the death penalty for me, could be seen as attempted murder. When
I found out that he had covered up so much evidence and was still alleging
that I got away with murder, even after I was released, I started talking
to attorneys. I figured that this monster was never going to let me live,
not as a free and innocent person anyway. I took out a lawsuit against him
and after 3 years he settled with me or rather the city and the county
settled. We couldn't sue him; we had to sue his supervisors for not
training and supervising him.

The day I got out of prison was the day I won justice for myself and my
family and for all those friends and people who had stood up and defended
me when the rest of the world was entitled to say "That guy's a murderer."
I didn't want to let any of those people down by coming out angry and
negative; what I wanted was for my family to feel safe again, and proud of
what they had stood for all those years. I wanted them to be proud of me.

My life started over again at the age of 45, and I walked out of prison to
the distinction of being the 100th person in this country to have been
exonerated from death row. There were a lot of anti-death penalty groups
out there waiting for that milestone, and there was a lot of press
coverage. One of the reporters asked me: "Mr Krone, given your faith in
God, how do you justify Him leaving you in prison for 10 years?" I wasn't
sure how to answer a deep, soul-searching question like that and my mind
went completely blank. Then suddenly it came to me and I said: "Well,
maybe it's not about those 10 years in prison. Maybe it's about what I
have to do in the next 10 years."

So later on, when I had more time to think about it, I thought that maybe
I was right, that maybe there was a reason why at the age of 35, when I
thought I was running my life, everything suddenly flew out of control. I
thought that this could be bigger than me, that there could be a reason
why I was arrested, and why I got out of prison on the day I did. So I've
been travelling around the country speaking to people about it and trying
to raise awareness, because if it can happen to me it can happen to
anybody.

It's part therapy being able to talk about it not keeping it inside where
it can blow up one day and it's also important to feel that something
good can come out of my experiences. People are beginning to realise that
the justice system can make terrible mistakes and condemn innocent people.
I didn't see this as a career, and I certainly didn't plan on being a
motivational speaker or an activist against the death penalty, but in the
same way that some people go to college for 10 years to become doctors or
lawyers, it does give my time on death row some sense of purpose.

Ray Krone is now a director of Witness to Innocence , an organisation
that campaigns against the death penalty. He was interviewed by Anna
Bruce-Lockhart.

(source: The Guardian Weekly)

USA: Life after death row

In 1992 Ray Krone, a former sergeant in the US Air Force, was sentenced to
death row for the murder of Kimberly Ancona, a bar manager found stabbed
to death in a restaurant near his home in Arizona. 10 years later, after
running newly developed DNA tests on the victim's clothes, he was found
innocent and freed. Krone was the 100th prisoner in the US to be
exonerated from death row. Now a campaigner against the death penalty, he
describes the long fight to clear his name

Being arrested was quite a surprise. On the day they found the body, they
brought me in to the police station and questioned me for 3 hours. I told
them everything I knew and thought that would be the end of it.

The next day they brought me to the police station to take blood and hair
samples, as well as dental casts of my teeth, and they questioned me for
yet another three hours. But again, I told them the truth. I knew I had
nothing to hide. The next day was New Years Eve, December 31, 1991; I'd
just got home and was in my driveway, getting out of my car, when all of a
sudden a van screeched up behind me, the doors flew open and people were
shouting "Freeze! Don't move!" Armed officers in full riot gear spilled
out of the van and arrested me right there.

Without any real evidence or any scientific support for it, the lead
detective decided that I was guilty, and he acted on it quickly. I worked
at the post office and it wasn't as if I was going anywhere. But within 2
days the analysis had come back confirming that my fingerprints,
footprints and hair had been found on the victims body. That stuff
couldn't possibly have come back from the lab in 2 days.

I knew the fingerprints and strands of hair at the crime scene weren't
mine. The footprints were of size 9 shoes and I'm a size 11. DNA testing
wasn't as prevalent then as it is now and they simply said that whatever
prints didnt match mine had nothing to do with the murder. The size 9
footprints at the crime scene were not only found in the kitchen where the
murder weapon a butcher's knife was taken from, but they were also on
the floor tiles next to where the body was discovered. I found out later
that whoever made the initial police report had changed the killer's
footprints to a size 11 to make it fit my profile, and when they went to
my house they couldn't match them to any of my shoes. But then they found
a local medical examiner who would testify that the bite marks on her body
matched my teeth.

It didn't matter what I said after that. It was like the frustration you
feel when you're a kid and your parents blame you for something your
brother or sister did, only this time it was a sharper intensity of pain
and lasted for a lot longer.

I was in contact with my sister regularly. I would tell her: "Don't worry
about it, I'll be out of here any minute." 7 months went by and I was put
on trial for murder, but I was still telling her it would all work out.
Then I got convicted and sent to death row. That was when it became a heck
of a burden on my mom and my family. I was the oldest in the family, and
had always been the responsible one my folks knew to trust me if I said
everything would be all right. Death row changed that.

When you get sent to death row you're in a little cell the size of most
people's bathroom and youre kept separate from all the other inmates. You
can see them in the distance and yell out to them, but you don't have any
physical contact. I realised in a short time that if I was going to fight
the system Id better get to know it. I started going to the law library,
reading up on case law.

Eventually it became known that the prosecutor had been withholding
evidence and the Arizona Supreme Court granted me a new trial. The judge
convicted me again, but said that there was lingering doubt of my guilt
and sentenced me to life imprisonment instead of death row.

In 2001 a new law was passed making it easier for inmates to request DNA
testing. The police still had items of the victim's clothing so I asked
the judge if I could have them tested. The prosecutor objected, as did the
attorney generals office, but nevertheless the judge ordered that it go
ahead. The Phoenix police department put some of the DNA into the
nationwide data bank, which is where the DNA of convicted felons all over
the US is stored, and it came back with a match. It was a man who had a
history of sexual assaults on women and children and lived 500 feet from
the bar in which the murder took place.

I remember that day clearly from start to finish. It was April 8, 2002. A
Friday. It began as just another day in prison but at noon I was told my
attorney was on the phone. He asked me how I was doing and I said: "Oh you
know, fine, just another day in paradise." He laughed and said: "What are
you hungry for, Ray?" and I said that I guessed I'd eat whatever was in
the chow hall. But he kept on and said: "No really, you want steak,
seafood? How about a Margarita?" I asked him what the devil he was talking
about and thats when he said: "I just got off the phone with the
prosecutor's office. They're cutting the paperwork. You're going home
today." My heart stopped; I couldn't breathe. 2 hours later I walked out
of prison. I kept looking over my shoulder in case theyd made a mistake.

What that prosecutor did, hiding evidence while at the same time actively
pursuing the death penalty for me, could be seen as attempted murder. When
I found out that he had covered up so much evidence and was still alleging
that I got away with murder, even after I was released, I started talking
to attorneys. I figured that this monster was never going to let me live,
not as a free and innocent person anyway. I took out a lawsuit against him
and after 3 years he settled with me or rather the city and the county
settled. We couldn't sue him; we had to sue his supervisors for not
training and supervising him.

The day I got out of prison was the day I won justice for myself and my
family and for all those friends and people who had stood up and defended
me when the rest of the world was entitled to say "That guy's a murderer."
I didn't want to let any of those people down by coming out angry and
negative; what I wanted was for my family to feel safe again, and proud of
what they had stood for all those years. I wanted them to be proud of me.

My life started over again at the age of 45, and I walked out of prison to
the distinction of being the 100th person in this country to have been
exonerated from death row. There were a lot of anti-death penalty groups
out there waiting for that milestone, and there was a lot of press
coverage. One of the reporters asked me: "Mr Krone, given your faith in
God, how do you justify Him leaving you in prison for 10 years?" I wasn't
sure how to answer a deep, soul-searching question like that and my mind
went completely blank. Then suddenly it came to me and I said: "Well,
maybe it's not about those 10 years in prison. Maybe it's about what I
have to do in the next 10 years."

So later on, when I had more time to think about it, I thought that maybe
I was right, that maybe there was a reason why at the age of 35, when I
thought I was running my life, everything suddenly flew out of control. I
thought that this could be bigger than me, that there could be a reason
why I was arrested, and why I got out of prison on the day I did. So I've
been travelling around the country speaking to people about it and trying
to raise awareness, because if it can happen to me it can happen to
anybody.

It's part therapy being able to talk about it not keeping it inside where
it can blow up one day and it's also important to feel that something
good can come out of my experiences. People are beginning to realise that
the justice system can make terrible mistakes and condemn innocent people.
I didn't see this as a career, and I certainly didn't plan on being a
motivational speaker or an activist against the death penalty, but in the
same way that some people go to college for 10 years to become doctors or
lawyers, it does give my time on death row some sense of purpose.

Ray Krone is now a director of Witness to Innocence , an organisation
that campaigns against the death penalty. He was interviewed by Anna
Bruce-Lockhart.

(source: The Guardian Weekly)

Wrongly Convicted Men Share Their Stories

Alan Crotzer
Larry Bostic

Florida Innocence Project Presentation Thursday night


Published: Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Updated: Wednesday, October 8, 2008


Two innocent prisoners who had their lengthy sentences prior overturned through the use of DNA evidence will speak Thursday at UT.

The cases of Alan Crotzer, of Tampa, and Larry Bostic have been chronicled in local and national news media.

The Florida Innocence Project (http://www.floridainnocence.org) will hold the presentation at 7:30 p.m. in the Vaughn Center's Board Room (9th floor).

"In the United States, DNA testing has so far helped exonerate and release 220 wrongfully convicted individuals. Nine of those were imprisoned in Florida. We know there are more. Florida leads the nation in Death Row exonerations (26 since 1973), and with our rapidly growing prison population approaching 93,000, the third highest in the country, it is clear that our work is only beginning," according to their Web site.

Larry Bostic Freed

Larry Bostic was exonerated 18 years after pleading guilty to a Fort Lauderdale rape that DNA now proves he didn't commit. He pled guilty to the crime to avoid a possible life sentence if convicted at trial, and finally brought about his own exoneration by filing a handwritten motion for DNA testing from prison.

In 2005, Bostic filed a handwritten motion from prison, requesting DNA testing on the victim's underwear and a rape kit collected after the crime.

Because Bostic pled guilty to the rape, the court dismissed his motion citing the prohibition on granting post-conviction DNA testing to whose entered a plea which was in place at that time.

In 2006,after the Innocence Project of Florida was able to extend the right to post-conviction DNA testing to those who pled. Bostic again filed his handwritten motion.

In June 2007, prosecutors agreed to conduct testing and sent the evidence to the Broward County Crime Lab for analysis. They received the results in August 2007: there were sperm cells on the vaginal swab in the rape kit, and the DNA profile of these cells did not match Bostic. Investigators interviewed the victim to confirm that she did not have other sexual partners in the days before the assault. She said she hadn't, and prosecutors joined with Bostic's appellate attorney in asking a Florida judge to dismiss the charges and vacate the convictions relating to the 1988 rape.

By the time Bostic's name was finally cleared on September 21, 2007, he was 51 years old.

Crotzer Freed

On January 23, 2006, Alan Crotzer was freed from prison after postconviction DNA testing proved his innocence of a 1981 rape, kidnapping, and robbery.

Crotzer had spent 24 years in prison in Florida for this crime - more than half his life.

On July 8, 1981, three men forced their way into a Tampa home. One of the assailants was armed with a shotgun. The five people inside the home were threatened with the gun and robbed. Two of the victims, a 38-year-old woman and a 12-year-old girl, were taken from the home and raped in a wooded area.

Crotzer and two co-defendants, Douglas James and Corlenzo James, were convicted of these crimes in 1981.

Crotzer continued to proclaim his innocence. It was not until 2003, however, that he was able to secure access to the evidence from his trial, which was being preserved at an FDLE laboratory. The spermatozoa found on the evidence, consisting of six slides, was subjected to three rounds of DNA testing at three different laboratories. Prosecutors agreed that the evidence should be tested.

The last round of testing confirmed what Crotzer had claimed since his arrest: he could not have been the man that raped the victims.

Specifically, the spermatozoa found on a slide recovered from the rape kit of the adult female rape victim came from an unknown male. It could not have come from Crotzer, either of the James brothers, or the victim's husband.

On January 23, 2006, Alan J. Crotzer's conviction was overturned and he was released. He had spent 24 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.

Miller

Seth Miller, the executive director of the Florida Innocence Project will moderate the presentation. He was a student intern with the project in 2003. He is a former project attorney with the American Bar Association Death Penalty Moratorium Implementation Project and a former staff attorney with the First District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee.

Miller will discuss the broader background of the criminal justice system in which the Florida Innocence Project operates. He joined the project in August 2006 and was a magna cum laude graduate of Florida State University's College of Law.

Donations

Persons wishing to attend this presentation are being asked to contribute a very modest charitable donation of $5 which will go directly to the Exoneree Emergency Fund of the Florida Innocence Project.

This charitable donation will not go toward any administrative costs of the organization, but will be used for direct client services for those whose cases are pending post-conviction review and remedy.

Donations greater than $5 will be most graciously accepted by the Florida Innocence Project.

This event is being sponsored, in part, by the Criminology Club and the PEACE Volunteer Center at the University of Tampa.

Innoncence Project

Date: Thursday, Oct. 09, 2008
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Location: Vaughn Center, Board Room (9th Floor)
Price: $5 donations are graciously accepted.

Contact: David Krahl (E-mail: dkrahl@ut.edu - Phone:(727) 656-4079)

Information:http://www.floridainnocence.org/

Juan Melendez, Innocent Survivor of 18 year Death Row Incarceration to Speak in Lacey

Submitted by Bert on Wed, 09/24/2008 - 10:40pm.
amnesty international
capital punishment
criminal injustice
criminal justice
Death
death penalty
death row
ethics
incarceration
injustice
innocence
justice
law
morality
punishment
survivor

Start: Sep 3 2008 - 4:00pm
End: Sep 3 2008 - 5:30pm

via email forwarded from local ai coordinator:

From: Juan Melendez

Subject: Please let ai members know that I will be sharing my story of supreme injustice as innocent man who spent nearly 18 years on Florida's death row in Seattle/Tacoma and Lacey, October 1-3:

Dear Amnesty International Coordinator:

Can you please help publicize the following events. I've included below a little bit about my story and some testimonials to give folks a sense of the powerfulness of my talk. I am also available to speak at a middle or high-school in Seattle on Wednesday, October 1, so if you know of any teachers or student ai groups which might be interested in bringing me to speak at their school, please let them know that I am available. A new book has just been published containing my story as well as the stories of 4 other death row exonerees. See Execution's Doorstep.

October 3: Talk at St. Martin's University, Lacey, Wa. at 4:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. location update: It seems that Juan Melendez will be at the Worthington Center. My name is Juan Roberto Melendez. I spent seventeen years, eight months and one day on Florida's death row for a crime I did not commit. (Voices United for Justice)

I was released on January 3, 2002 and at that time, I became the 99th death row inmate in the United States to be exonerated and released since 1973. At the moment, there are 127 of us. We can only wonder how many of those who have already been executed in this country did not have the pure luck that many of us had.

My story highlights many of the problems of the death penalty. In particular, its high risk and inevitability of being imposed on the innocent, its unfair and unequal application on the basis of race and ethnicity and its almost exclusive imposition on our most vulnerable members of society--the poor. Although my case was riddled with doubt, and there was not one single shred of physical evidence against me, I was convicted and sentenced to death within a week by a "death- qualified" jury composed of 11 whites and 1 African-American, folks who I believe presumed my guilt right from the start and who chose to reject my airtight alibi witness and other witnesses, in favor of the government's witnesses, including two key witnesses who stood to gain substantially by testifying against me.

Had it not been for the extremely fortunate discovery of a taped confession of the real killer, sixteen years after I had been sentenced to death, I almost certainly would have been executed. At the time the taped confession was discovered, the Supreme Court of Florida had already upheld my conviction and death sentence three times on appeal. Had I been on death row in Texas or Virginia, I would not be alive today.

Beyond the death penalty, my story is also one of survival, faith and hope which seems to reach people from all walks of life at many different levels. Since my release from death row, I have spoken to hundreds of thousands of people throughout the United States and abroad. I speak most often at high-schools, colleges, law schools, juvenile detention centers and faith communities. I hope the feedback I have included below will give you a sense of the impact of my story.

Feedback "Prior to hearing Mr. Melendez's speech, I was pro-death penalty. Now I will fight to abolish it!!" -Norma Francisco, Ph.D., member of the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples, San Francisco (August 13, 2006)

"He (Juan Melendez) is the best argument against the death penalty that anyone could ever hear." - Journalism student, University of New Mexico

"I have not attended a better speech in all my ten plus years in the clinics! Or has one affected me so much as his speech! One student who has always been for the death penalty changed his views that day . . . He was awesome." - Linda Herrera, Director of Legal Clinics at Southern Methodist University School of Law

"Your story is one that needs to be heard by everyone and your message of hope is truly an inspiration." -Dr. Judy Hendry, journalism professor, University of New Mexico

"Juan is a living testament to the injustice of capital punishment and his talk is infinitely more effective than anything I could teach my students." -Law professor Marjorie Cohn, Thomas Jefferson School of Law

"He is a brilliant speaker and a brilliant story teller . . . It is so important that he share his story with the public because [he] is a prime example of how one man's personal story can do more to inform people about the death penalty than all of the cases, newspapers and political rallies combined." -Morgan Anderson, law student University of San Francisco School of Law

"Phenomenal!" -Audience member, Catholic Religious Education Congress, Anaheim, California, March 2007

"One of the most powerful and moving events we have had here-not just the extraordinary story he had to tell, but the grace and skill with which he told it." -Simon Keyes, Director of St. Ethelburga's Ctr. for Peace and Reconciliation, London, England

To read more feedback (high school students) and learn more about my story, please visit Voices United for Justice.

I am also available on Tuesday, September 30 to speak in the evening. I arrive in Seattle/Tacoma at 4:15 p.m. October 1: Talk at University of Seattle School of Law at 6:00 p.m.-7:30 p.m. October 2: Talk at University of Washington School of Law at 12:30 p.m.-1:30 p.m. October 2: Talk at University of Pudget Sound at 7:00 p.m. -8:30 p.m.

Juan Melendez & The Case Against the Death Penalty

Death row exoneree Juan Roberto Melendez spoke tonight at the Seattle University School of Law, telling of his nearly 18 years on Florida’s death row for a murder he didn’t commit. Juan described a short trial, which the judge still complained was too long; with evidence including a confession from the real killer emerging years later.

Juan talked about his anger on death row, and other prisoners befriending him and teaching him to read and write English and more. He described the deaths of many of his friends on death row itself, through suicide and a friend who died of a heart attack or stroke on the exercise area. His friend collapsed while playing basketball. The guards called for the nurse, a white man who was chewing and spitting tobacco, just took his time getting there, then getting the oxygen, then saying that one was empty and he would need to go back for another one. Juan asked why couldn’t mouth to mouth resuscitation be done. The nurse responded with racial epithets why he wouldn’t help a black man. Juan finally convinced them to let him try, but it was too late and his friend died in his arms.

Juan talked about considering suicide himself, and even bribing the guard for a plastic bag to tie up and hang himself with (as some of his friends had); but deciding to sleep on it and having a dream of his childhood in Puerto Rico involving swimming with dolphins and his mother smiling on the shore. His rediscovered faith and his mothers and aunts got him through.

Eighteen years is a long time, but at least Juan was exonerated in time. What if it was too late? Consider this - that he was the 99th death row prisoner exonerated since the death penalty was reinstated in the U.S. in 1976, and there are now 127. That alone should be reason enough to reconsider and abolish it once more (as most civilized countries, including Canada, Mexico and the entire European Union have). Truth is, it’s just revenge; but what if it turns out you took revenge on the wrong man (or woman, as has happened as well)?

For more information on the death penalty see:

Amnesty International: http://www.amnestyusa.org/abolish

National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty: http://www.ncadp.org/

Washington Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty: http://www.abolishdeathpenalty.org/

Tags: Juan+Roberto+Melendez, Seattle+University, death+penalty

Juan Roberto Melendez talk at SU

October 2, 2008 @ 6:38 pm · Filed under Death Penalty, Events

Juan Melendez, the 99th death row inmate to be released and exonerated, spoke last night at the Seattle University School of Law to a spellbound audience.

Mr. Melendez was convicted based on a police informant’s testimony, in spite of no physical evidence against him. Nearly two decades later, he was exonerated after a taped confession was found in his trial defense lawyer’s office, with corroborating documents, and proof that that prosecutor had access to evidence about the real killer before Mr. Melendez’s trial.

He recounted 18 years in Florida State Prison, where he watched many of his friends, fellow death row inmates, commit suicide, be executed, or die due to lack of medical attention. He shared a message of the humanity, recounting how many of his fellow inmates helped him turn his life around by teaching him to read, write, and speak English. He also spoke of the importance of faith and family in surviving his ordeal.

Mr. Melendez closed his speech by calling for the crowd to become active in the movement to abolish the death penalty. Without the attention and action of all of us, he said, this change will never occur.

Also speaking at the event was Jeff Ellis, president of the Washington Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. who stated that Mr. Melendez’s case was one of many that illustrate that our country’s “experiment” with the death penalty has grave consequences.

Speaker recalls death row

Melendez today at APSU

Juan Melendez lived more than 17 years behind the bars of a Florida prison on death row for a crime he did not commit.

Melendez is the featured speaker of two forums today at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. in the Gentry Auditorium of the Kimbrough Building on Austin Peay State University campus.

Melendez was exonerated and released from death row in 1973.

He will share his story of how he spent his time incarcerated and how forensic evidence eventually prompted his release.

The forums are free and open to the public.

The event is hosted by Austin Peay's United Methodist Student Center - the Wesley Foundation and sponsored by the Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State Killing and the local Unitarian Universalist's Fellowship.

Ann Wallace covers education and religion. She can be reached at 245-0287 or by e-mail at annwallace@theleafchronicle.com

Montana Journey of Hope 2008

Shujaa Graham

Let's start with the exonerated. Shujaa Graham (California), Juan Melendez (Florida), Greg Wilhoit (Oklahoma, Ron Keine (New Mexico) and Journey newcomer Curtis McCarty (Oklahoma) are coming. Death row family members are represented by Terri Steinburg (son Justin on death row in VA), Delia Perez Meyer (brother Louis on death row in Texas), and CeCe McWee (who witnessed the execution of her son Jerry). David Kaczynski, brother of Unabomber Ted, who was captured in Montana and subject of the federal government seeking the death penalty.

We will be speaking with a group of 10 teams. Speaking for the murder victim families are Marietta Jaeger Lane (daughter Susie kidnapped and murdered in Montana when she was 7 years old), Bud Welch (daughter Julie Marie was killed in the Oklahoma City bombing), Ron Carlson (Sister Debbie was killed by Karla Faye Tucker), Art Laffin (brother Paul was killed by a mentally ill man is 1999), George White (wife Charlene was shot twice and died in George's arms), Rev. Walt Everett (son Scott was murdered), Eve Malo (grandfather was killed by family member), Eddie Hicks (daughter was killed), Bess Klassen Landis (mother was killed), JA Ziegler Sr. and yours truly.

Joining us in various capacities are Charlie King and Karen Brandow. What a special treat it is for Charlie and Karen to join us again this year.

Barbara Allen, whose uncle was executed in Texas, will also be joining us from Canada to help out, Ron Carlson's wife, Debra, and Walt Everett's wife Nancy will come along to keep an eye on their husbands, and Bob Lane will be keeping his eye on Marietta. Kathy Harris will also join us for a few days. Jo Royston from England will cross water to also help us out.

We are hoping that it will work out for Abe Bonowitz, Beth Wood and Connie Nash to come.

MVFHR, MVFR, Witness to Innocence, NCADP and many other organizations will be represented on the Montana Journey. Thank for being part of this historic event.

Exonerated death row inmate to speak

A man who spent more than 17 years behind bars on Florida's death row for a crime he did not commit will be the featured speaker at two community forums next week.

By ANN WALLACE • The Leaf-Chronicle • October 3, 2008

Juan Melendez will speak at 2 and 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Gentry Auditorium at Austin Peay State University.

Melendez was exonerated and released in 2002.

"He is very passionate about that not happening to someone else," said the Rev. Jodi McCullah, director of the Wesley Foundation, the United Methodist Student Center adjacent to APSU. "We wanted to provide a thought-provoking educational program on campus, and this issue is something that I feel strongly about."

Melendez has a compelling story.

"He spent 17 years, eight months and one day on death row for a crime that he did not do," said McCullah, who advocates sentences of life without parole instead of capital punishment.

The number of people released from death row across the country after evidence of their innocence emerged now stands at 130, according to McCullah.

Stacy Rector, executive director of the educational advocacy organization Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State Killing, said 2007 data indicates Tennessee has 90 people on death row, including two women.

"Tennessee has the 10th largest death row population in the nation," Rector said.

The state Legislature is currently examining the fairness and accuracy of Tennessee's death penalty system.

The Tuesday forums are jointly sponsored by TCASK and the local Unitarian Universalists Fellowship.

Ann Wallace covers education and religion. She can be reached at 245-0287 or annwallace@theleafchronicle.com.

DNA and the Exit to Freedom

In 1983, Calvin C. Johnson, Jr. stood in a courtroom and was sentenced to life in prison for a rape and burglary he said he did not commit. "With God as my witness, I have been falsely accused," Johnson told the judge, "I'm an innocent man." After 16 years in prison, Johnson was exonerated with the help of the Innocence Project and state-of-the-art science. He was the 61st person in the US, and the first in Georgia, to be proved innocent by DNA testing. Hear firsthand about Johnson's wrongful conviction and imprisonment, and the events that led to his exoneration.

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Unjustly Imprisoned – Innocent Dallas man spends 26 years in prison

Dallas, Texas (JusticeNewsFlash.com – News Report)

The 1994 American film, The Shawshank Redemption, recounts the story of Mr. Andy Dufresne convicted of the double murder of his wife and her lover. He was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences in the Shawshank prison in northern Maine. Years later, another prisoner enters and reveals that his old cellmate actually committed the double homicide. When Andy approached the warden with the truth, he was sentenced to solitary confinement. After almost two decades, Andy uses a small rock hammer and escapes his unjust imprisonment and flees to a small place on the Pacific coast.

This tale is not uncommon. Currently, the Dallas County District Attorney, Mr. Craig Watkins, is investigating the innocent individuals he believes have been imprisoned by faulty prosecutions. His plans entail re-examining almost 40 inmates convicted and sentenced to death row. He is dedicated to “look at those cases from a new perspective to make sure that those individuals that are on death row need to be there and need to be executed.” This interest sprang from 19 accounts, of exonerations, due to faulty eyewitness and DNA testing. One of these stories is very similar to the Shawshank story. Mr. Patrick Waller was recently exonerated of a 1992 robbery and rape when the real criminals admitted to the crimes; but it was too late, the statue of limitations to prosecute them had passed. What does this mean? It means that the true criminals that should have served time did not and are still free to roam the streets.

Another direct example is a case of Mr. Johnnie Earl Lindsey who was convicted of rape and given life imprisonment. Now, 26 years later, DNA tests reveal that he was not the one that sexually assaulted the woman. Over time, he has sent six letters requesting further DNA testing but was ignored until Watkins came on the scene in January 2007. And although it would have been easier for Mr. Lindsey to admit to the false allegations and receive parole, he never did because he knew he was innocent, he even has old time cards showing he was at work when the rape occurred.

Thankfully, DA Watkins is making some changes with the implementation of the Innocence Project of Texas. Watkins understands that the courts cannot fully rely on eyewitness accounts and should grant DNA tests for all convicted. These are people’s lives; they must be looked at with great care and not simply thrown into life imprisonment. This is not the way our Founding Fathers envisioned the justice system to work.

Written by: Jana Simard – Legal News Reporter

I Spent 16 Years in Jail for a Crime I Didn't Commit. Here's What Should Be Done.

I went to jail as a teenager for a rape and murder I didn't commit. Here are the reforms necessary to make sure it does not happen again.

I was wrongfully convicted in 1990 of a murder and rape in Peekskill, N.Y. DNA taken from semen found in the victim did not match my DNA. But misconduct at every stage of the criminal justice system led me to spend 16 years of my life in prison. That misconduct included a coerced, false confession when I was 16, extracted after many days of interrogation overseen by current Peekskill Police Chief Eugene Tumolo and others, as well as the falsification of other evidence.

Most people think that only a guilty person would confess to a crime. But I can tell you that scare tactics, threats of violence, food deprivation, being lied to regarding lie detector results and being told that you can go home if you cooperate have produced many false confessions. Of the 218 exonerations based on DNA testing, false confessions led to 25 percent of the original convictions.
"Maybe you are innocent," Judge Nicholas Colabella said just before giving me a 15-years-to-life sentence. Former District Attorney Jeanine Pirro successfully opposed all of my appeals and even blocked several attempts to get more DNA testing. My fortune turned in 2006, when The Innocence Project took my case. With the cooperation of District Attorney Janet DiFiore, further DNA testing proved who the real perpetrator was. On Nov. 2, 2006, all charges were dismissed and I was publicly acknowledged as innocent. I received some apologies, but none were from those who played a role in wrongfully convicting me.

Readjusting to being free, dealing with the effects of my ordeal, learning new technology, trying to rebuild relationships with my family and experiencing financial pressure have all been hard. I was released with nothing. The litigation I am pursuing will take two to seven years, with the state attempting to avoid giving me anything.

But I am not angry. Instead, I channel my energy into raising awareness about the problem of wrongful convictions, and the danger that the death penalty poses in executing innocent people. I give presentations about wrongful convictions at colleges, high schools, churches and organizations throughout New York and other states. This is my main means of income, but I never know when the next chance to give a presentation will be. I also publish an article each week in the Westchester Guardian. I give television, radio and newspaper interviews, willingly sacrificing privacy in exchange for raising awareness about the problem of wrongful convictions and the need to enact legislative reforms to prevent them. I have testified at several legislative hearings, and I lobby lawmakers to enact reforms to protect the innocent and make the system more reliable. As an additional tool for encouraging lawmakers to enact changes, I collect signatures for an online petition on my Web site, http://www.jeffreydeskovicspeaks.org/.

Nationwide, to date, there have been 218 wrongful convictions proven through DNA, and many additional exonerations achieved by other means, including the discovery of new evidence, materials purposely withheld from the defense, and the recantation of eyewitness identifications. During the time I spent wrongfully incarcerated -- 16 years -- I immersed myself in wrongful conviction literature. Now that I'm free, I continue to study the subject, so I'm aware of the causes of wrongful convictions, well beyond what happened in my case. Here are the reforms that are needed in order to produce a more accurate justice system. If you agree with these changes, please sign the petition on my Web site and encourage others to do so as well. Also, call your local representatives and ask them to institute them.

False Confessions
False confessions have accounted for 25 percent of the 218 DNA exonerations.
All interrogations should be videotaped, from beginning to end. This would prevent police from concealing abusive tactics they may have used from their testimony. It would allow a complete and accurate record of who said what, when, and in what context. It would also protect honest police officers from false allegations of coercion. The use of polygraph tests, lying to suspects by claiming to have evidence of their guilt, and prolonged interrogations over many hours should be outlawed.

All of these tactics have been linked to false confessions. Studies have revealed that such tactics convey to suspects that, no matter what, they will be arrested for something they did not do; it's just a matter of whether they will make it worse on themselves by maintaining their innocence. It is especially critical that interrogations of the mentally ill or the mentally retarded only take place with a lawyer present, because mentally ill and mentally retarded people often try to compensate for their mental deficiencies by being compliant in the face of authority.

Confession testimony is devastating to defendants, resulting in a conviction 80 percent of the time. Before evidence obtained through a confession is allowed at trial, a pretrial hearing on the confession itself should be conducted, akin to a Wade hearing in which the accuracy of an eyewitness identification is reviewed. Existing pretrial procedures, which are only aimed at determining whether a confession is given willingly by a suspect, are not enough.

Eyewitness Identification
Witness misidentification has been the cause of wrongful convictions in 75 percent of the 218 DNA exonerations.
Sequential lineups and sequential photo arrays should be used, in which a victim is shown one suspect at a time, rather than viewing everybody at once. Suspects included in a photo array or lineup should resemble each other so that no one sticks out.
The victim should be told that the perpetrator may not be present, to prevent victims from having undue confidence that the perpetrator is there, thus leading to a misidentification. Victims should be told that the investigation will continue if they don't make an identification so that they don't feel pressured into making an ID.

The officers conducting the lineup should themselves remain unaware of the identity of the suspect, to prevent them from giving inadvertent cues or clues.
Confidence statements, in which a victim states on a scale of 1 to 10 how confident they are about their identification, should be taken, to give courts and juries further insight.
The lineup or photo array should be recorded, to ensure its integrity.

Incentivized Witnessing
Incentivized witnessing -- in which a witness is rewarded for testifying, be it with a lesser prison sentence, dropped charges or financial compensation -- has been the cause of wrongful convictions in 15 percent of the 218 DNA exonerations. The practice of incentivized witnessing should be ended; those who have evidence should come forward on a moral basis, not because they stand to benefit. When desperate prisoners have been caught red-handed committing a crime and they have no truthful information to trade on, they falsely implicate others.

Reform Pertaining to Evidence
Currently, there is no standardized system for ensuring that evidence is preserved and available for inspection and testing. Often the first obstacle for a wrongfully convicted person is determining whether the evidence can be located and whether it has been destroyed. If it has, an innocent person can remain incarcerated with no way to prove his or her innocence.
It should be a crime when police and prosecutors purposely withhold evidence. History shows that with no personal penalty, morality alone is not enough to restrain some rogue police officers and prosecutors.

Public Defenders
Without quality attorneys, innocent defendants will continue to be wrongfully convicted, and cases will not have just and fair outcomes.
In every state, there should be one standardized system of defense for the poor, as advocated in "The State of Indigent Defense in New York," a report prepared by the Spangenberg Group for New York Court of Appeals Chief Justice Judith Kaye. A centralized system would impose more quality control, allowing for more internal oversight and accountability.

Public defenders who have shown a substandard performance defending indigent defendants should no longer be employed by the state to do so. Allowing unqualified public defenders to continue sets the stage for future inadequate performances and possible wrongful convictions.
The defense and the prosecution should have an equal and adequate budget to hire experts and other necessary personnel to assist in the preparation of cases. As it is, defense attorneys have an extremely limited budget, far less than prosecutors' huge budgets. On such an unequal playing field, no confidence can be placed on the outcome of court proceedings or verdicts. Furthermore, public defenders should have the same size staff as the district attorneys to ensure that they are not overwhelmed by sheer manpower.

There should be a limit to the number of cases a public defender is allowed to take on at one time. In the Bronx, for example, it is not unusual for a public defender to have 140 cases at the same time. Overburdening a public defender prevents him or her from giving each case the time, preparation and investigation it deserves.

Public defenders should be given pay equal to that of prosecutors.
Indigent defendants should be provided with court-appointed attorneys to handle post-conviction motions so that they can have competent legal representation, rather than trying to represent themselves against trained and seasoned prosecutors. A post-conviction motion differs from an appeal in that the defendant may be seeking to introduce new evidence or new issues of law that could not have been raised on appeal.

DNA
Access to DNA testing should always be provided, even in cases where defendants have pled guilty -- there have been 11 instances where an innocent defendant has pled guilty, often as a result of fear of a higher sentence, only to be proven innocent by DNA.
Judges should be given the authority to order crime scene DNA comparisons to DNA databases; currently the law does not explicitly give them that authority, and whether the testing goes forward or not often is up to the discretion of the prosecution. Current law allows judges the authority to order DNA in those cases in which DNA could affect the outcome. It should be that, in any case in which there is testable material, a test should be done.

Prosecutors should not be allowed to explain away a negative DNA test result at a trial by claiming the victim had a consensual sexual encounter, without first proving that such an encounter took place. When a prosecutor argues that a rape or other crime was committed by one person, and then a post-conviction DNA test shows the defendant is innocent, prosecutors should not be allowed to then change their theory on appeal and claim that a crime was committed by two people. Conclusions should be based on what the evidence shows, not by making evidence fit a conclusion.

Post-Conviction Review
In many wrongful conviction cases, it is usually discovered that the cleared person's appeals ran out years before. More review is needed to catch mistakes and correct wrongful incarcerations. Courts of appeals should review all cases, as a matter of a defendant's right, as an additional level of review, with the goal of catching more wrongful convictions.

There should be a review apparatus, besides appeals or pardons, for reviewing cases in which a defendant has a strong innocence claim. Appellate review is not enough to protect the innocent, and a governor's pardon occurs within a highly charged political environment. A review should be independent of both the courts and the governor's office, and be staffed by wrongful conviction experts.

An Innocence Commission should be created to study what went wrong in wrongful convictions, so that lessons can be learned and changes adopted to try to prevent future wrongful convictions.

Compensation
A guilty person on parole currently receives more help than an exoneree, who receives nothing. All wrongfully convicted individuals should be compensated upon discovery that he or she was innocent of the crime.
An immediate sum of $15,000 dollars for each year spent wrongfully incarcerated should immediately be paid to those who have been cleared of a crime. This should be aside from any money awarded as a result of a lawsuit, to meet immediate needs such as housing, cost of living, mental health services, health insurance and education.

Compensation lawsuits should receive fast-track processing in the courts.
Bad case law stating that an exonerated person who has contributed to his or her own wrongful conviction should not be eligible to receive any compensation should be changed. The idea that anybody would intentionally get themselves wrongfully convicted and sentenced to prison only to then clear themselves in order to be in position to sue is ridiculous. To deny compensation to anybody who has been wrongfully convicted adds insult to injury.

Parole
The Parole Board should not be allowed to deny parole to those who profess their innocence based on the idea that they are not taking responsibility for their crimes or expressing sufficient remorse. These standards do not take into account the possibility -- and reality -- of wrongful convictions. The wrongfully convicted should not be made to stay in prison based upon their protestation of innocence. It is a fact that some wrongfully convicted prisoners have been denied parole after finishing their minimum sentences for these reasons.

Similarly, the Parole Board should not be allowed to deny parole to prisoners based upon their being removed from a sex offender class due to a refusal to admit guilt, because such a practice places the wrongfully convicted in the catch-22 of either falsely admitting guilt to try to regain freedom, or to lose a chance at freedom as the price for maintaining innocence.