"I'm innocent. I should not die here. I should not spend the rest of my life in prison," he said minutes after his release Thursday night. "Without hope, I probably would have committed suicide."

Melendez, with $100 in his pocket from the state and a new jacket purchased by his legal team, walked out of Union Correctional Institution less than five hours after he learned he would be a free man.

"I want to tell you, I feel good!" said Melendez, with a broad smile.

Melendez said he has been robbed of much of his life and that Florida's prison system is dehumanizing.

"They can give me a billion dollars and they cannot pay for what they did to me," Melendez said. "The only way they can compensate me is to give me my 18 years back."

Melendez said he planned to return to his native Puerto Rico and live with his 73-year-old mother. He said he has not decided whether he will sue.

Melendez, 50, was freed after prosecutors in central Florida's Polk County announced they would not go ahead with a court-ordered retrial because they no longer had enough evidence. One of the only two witnesses against Melendez has recanted and the other is now dead, said Chip Thullbery, administrative assistant state attorney.

Melendez was convicted on witness testimony for the 1983 killing of cosmetology school owner Delbert Baker, even though there was no physical evidence linking Melendez to the slaying.

During his years in prison, he lost several rounds of appeals and had his death sentence upheld by the Florida Supreme Court before the transcript of the other man's confession to the slaying was discovered in 1999.

Defense attorneys said the true killer, a now deceased man named Vernon James, confessed to at least four investigators or attorneys, but none of those admissions were allowed in court.

"I'm happy to finally have it over and to have Juan released," said attorney Marty McClain, who pursued his appeal. "But it really is a sad day that the system allowed this to happen and for it to go on so long."

Melendez is the 99th U.S. death row inmate freed after being cleared by new evidence, said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington.

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On the Net: Juan Melendez: http://ccadp.org/juanmelendez.htm

Death Penalty Information Project: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/

AP-ES-01-04-02 0244EST