Orlando Sentinel

Group organizes rally against death penalty

A group opposed to the death penalty rallied in front of the Orange County Courthouse on Friday, calling for a moratorium on executions and noting that 24 inmates have been released from death row since the reinstatement of capital punishment in Florida.

 Abe Bonowitz, director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, attacked Gov. Jeb Bush, claiming Bush used 2 executions in the past 2 weeks for his own political gain. Bonowitz urged voters to oppose Amendment 1, which he said would "open the door to the executions of 16-year-olds in the state of Florida."

 Bonowitz and others said they thinkthe amendment could nullify a state Supreme Court ruling determining the minimum age for executions in Florida.

 Bonowitz and his group said that at the very least they want more accountability and responsibility from prosecutors and a reform of the state's capital-punishment system.

 Juan Melendez, a man wrongly convicted of murder and then released in January after spending 17 years on death row, said his case shows that the state's death-penalty law needs to be abolished.

 "How many innocent people have already died? Only God knows," said Melendez, 51, who lives in Puerto Rico. "Being there [on death row] is already death, times 5."

 An audience of 25 to 30 people listened and applauded as Melendez and others spoke on the mall outside the courthouse.

 Melendez, who was convicted and sentenced in Polk County, said he has spent the time since his release crusading against the death penalty.

 "I'm here to tell the state of Florida to tell the governor to please stop the executions," Melendez said. "That would be the happiest day in my life to see this law abolished."

 Bush spokeswoman Elizabeth Hirst said the governor has not used the recent executions politically and does not consider the state's death-penalty system faulty.

 "The governor has a duty to sign death warrants," Hirst said. "The death penalty is the law of the land and supported by a majority of Floridians. We have a process in place that looks at these cases, case by case."

 The state Supreme Court meanwhile is reviewing whether Florida's system for executions is constitutional.