Riaperto il processo grazie alla confessione del vero colpevole Tampa (Florida) 3 gen. -  - Dopo 17 anni passati nel braccio della morte nella prigione di Tampa, in Florida, un detenuto americano � stato prosciolto dall'accusa dal procuratore che ha riconosciuto la confessione fatta dal vero colpevole.

Juan Melendez, che ora ha 50 anni, era stato giudicato colpevole di un omicidio avvenuto nel 1983 in una scuola per estetisti. La sentenza, che era stata approvata dalla Corte suprema della Florida, due anni fa � stata smentita dalla scoperta di una copia della confessione del vero assassino, Vernon James.

Una rivelazione che ha convinto il procuratore Polk County a riaprire il processo, anche perch� uno dei due testimoni contro Melendez aveva ritirato la sua deposizione e il secondo era

morto.

January 3 

Man Freed After 18 Years on Florida Death Row

By Jim Loney

MIAMI - After nearly 18 years on Florida's death row, a man held in the 1983 murder of a beauty-school owner was freed and smiling on Thursday after his conviction was overturned because prosecutors withheld critical evidence in his original trial and officials decided not to retry him.

 Juan Roberto Melendez, who was convicted in 1984 of the murder of Delbert Baker in Polk County, Florida, walked out of the Union Correctional Institution in Raiford, Florida, on Thursday night, his attorney Martin McClain said.

 ``There was a bright smile on his face, just sort of a glow. He was very happy,'' McClain told Reuters by telephone.

 The attorney also said he was pleased for his client.

 ``However, that happiness is mixed with the sense that here a person has spent 17 years and 10 months incarcerated on death row for a crime he didn't commit,'' said McClain.

 Baker was shot in the head after closing his cosmetology school in the central Florida town of Auburndale on Sept. 13, 1983. Some of his jewelry was missing.

 Melendez, now 50, was convicted on the strength of an informant who said Melendez had confessed to him that he committed the killing while the two were using cocaine together. But police had no physical evidence linking Melendez to the crime, McClain said.

 His conviction stood through appeals all the way to the Florida Supreme Court (news - web sites) but the case was reopened in 2000 when a transcript emerged of another man, Vernon James, confessing to the crime under questioning by state investigators. James is now dead.

 Last month, Florida Circuit Court Judge Barbara Fleischer overturned Melendez's death sentence on the grounds that prosecutors withheld critical evidence during trial and failed to present physical evidence implicating him, defense attorneys said.

 Chip Thullbery, a Polk County assistant state attorney, said that prosecutors do not have enough evidence to retry the case because one key witness is dead and another has recanted his testimony.

 ``We still believe he (Melendez) did it,'' Thullbery told Reuters. ``We simply have to recognize the hard fact that we can no longer prove that in court.''

 McClain said Melendez would spend a few days in Tallahassee with his lawyers ``while he figures out what to do.''

 ``He is planning to visit his 73-year-old mother in Puerto Rico,'' he said.

 Melendez was born in Brooklyn, New York, but raised in Puerto Rico.

 Melendez was the 99th death row inmate to be exonerated in the United States since 1973 and the 22nd in Florida alone, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington, D.C.-based group that tracks death penalty cases.

 ``Our nation is approaching a shameful milestone of 100 death row exonerations,'' said Wayne Smith, executive director of The Justice Project, a nonprofit group dedicated to identifying and resolving issues of fairness in the U.S. justice system, in a news release. ``Insurmountable evidence shows that our nation's death penalty system is broken.'' 

Miami Herald

FLORIDA: Inmate on death row goes free after 17 years

Discovery of old transcript was crucialA chance discovery 2 years ago of an old legal transcript in a lawyer's files led to freedom Thursday for Juan Melendez -- 17 years after he was sent to Florida's death row for a murder another man claimed to have committed.Polk County prosecutors effectively set Melendez free when they announced Thursday that they do not have sufficient evidence to re-try him for the 1983 slaying of a Central Florida beauty school owner.The official release came hours later, when Melendez walked out of Union Correctional Institution in Raiford with a new set of clothes, compliments of the state. His team of lawyers and their investigator, all from the state's Capital Collateral Office that handles death-penalty appeals, rushed by car from Tallahassee to pick him up at the prison gates."I tell you, I feel great," the former migrant worker said with a non-stop grin, as he stood outside the prison, his attorneys at his side.He hadn't learned of his impending release until mid-afternoon, he said, when a prison officer broke the news. "I was in a state of shock," Melendez said.He insisted he does not feel anger toward the legal system. "If I would get bitter, all I would do is torment myself," Melendez said, clutching a windbreaker against the cold night air. "They could give me a billion dollars and that would not pay for what they did to me."His lawyers said justice came late for Melendez."I'm happy to finally have it over and to have Juan released," said attorney Marty McClain, who pursued the appeal. "But it really is a sad day that the system allowed this to happen and for it to go on so long."Melendez, 50, was sentenced to death in 1984 for the murder of Delbert "Mr. Del" Baker in his Auburndale beauty salon. Melendez lost several rounds of appeals and his death sentence was upheld. He was nearing the end of his appeals when his former defense lawyer, Roger Alcott, discovered a key transcript as he moved old boxes of files following his appointment as a Polk County circuit judge in early 2000.The transcript details a conversation taped about a month before Melendez's trial. On the tape, Vernon James, a now-deceased witness in the case, admitted being involved in the murder and said that Melendez was not at the scene. Alcott has said he attempted to use the information at trial but was legally blocked from doing so after James, taking the Fifth Amendment on the witness stand, refused to testify.Alcott refused to comment Thursday.

CONFESSION ALLEGED Transcript in hand, Melendez's appellate lawyers continued to investigate, finding that James, once a suspect in the murder, had told up to 20 other people -- including a former law enforcement officer -- of his involvement in the murder. Some said he had confessed to the killing.Armed with new evidence, the lawyers returned to state court to appeal Melendez's conviction. An evidentiary hearing was held, and on Dec. 6, Circuit Judge Barbara Fleischer in Tampa ruled that Melendez was entitled to a new trial.She found that the trial prosecutor, Hardy Pickard, had failed to disclosed potentially damaging information to the defense, including serious inconsistencies in statements by John Berrien, 1 of 2 major state witnesses.Additionally, the judge said Pickard misled the jury about testimony from the other main state witness, David Luna Falcon, by telling jurors that Falcon had "nothing to gain" from testifying. But Falcon, who testified at trial that Melendez had confessed, had struck a deal with prosecutors to reduce his own prison time in exchange for testimony.No physical evidence ever connected Melendez to the murder, Fleischer noted. "Rather, his conviction and sentence of death hinged on the jury's and the judge's belief of John Berrien and David Luna Falcon,'' she wrote.

NEW EVIDENCE The new evidence, along with Pickard's withholding of information, "combine to undermine the confidence in the outcome of the defendant's original trial," she concluded.Pickard had similar involvement in another Death Row case currently under federal court review. In 1984, he prosecuted Bill Kelley for the 1966 murder of Charles Von Maxcy of Sebring. Kelley's appellate lawyers have argued that Pickard withheld information from the jury that showed a witness had been offered immunity in exchange for testimony.After the judge's ruling in the Melendez case, the Polk County State Attorney's Office faced the prospect of re-trying a 19-year-old case in which one key witness, Berrien, had recanted and the other, Falcon, was now dead.

PROSECUTION OVER Thursday, prosecutors filed notice they would not pursue the case."We believe that the evidence was there at the time we prosecuted him," said Chip Thullbery, administrative assistant state attorney in Polk County. "After all these years, though, we are left with nothing to proceed on."Melendez is the 99th death row inmate freed in the United States by new evidence, said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Project in Washington. He said inmates were released more frequently in the past decade -- roughly a half-dozen each year -- due to newly discovered evidence or newly allowed DNA testing.Last year, Jerry Frank Townsend, who is mentally disabled, was released from prison after DNA tests linked another man to some killings in Fort Lauderdale to which Townsend had confessed.

PUERTO RICO In his 1st days of freedom, Melendez, who has no relatives in Florida, will probably go visit his 73-year-old mother in Puerto Rico, he said."I'm going to go home to look after my momma," he told reporters Thursday night. "She's 73 years old. She's all alone. I just want to spend time with her."

Florida Inmate Becomes 99th Death Row Exoneration

 Prosecutors in Florida have announced their decision to drop all the charges against Juan Roberto Melendez, a man who spent 18 years on Florida's death row.  Melendez was sentenced to death in 1984 for the murder of Delbert Baker.  In December 2001, Florida Circuit Court Judge Barbara Fleischer overturned Melendez's capital murder conviction after determining that prosecutors in his original trial withheld critical evidence. The judge noted that no physical evidence linked Melendez to the crime (see below).  At trial, the state had used the testimony of two witnesses whose credibility was later challenged with new evidence. (Associated Press, 12/5/01)  Following the reversal of Melendez's conviction, prosecutors decided not to retry the case.  (Associated Press, 1/3/02)

       Melendez is the 99th person to be exonerated from death row since 1973, and the 22nd person to be freed from Florida -- more than any other state.