The ongoing debate over capital punishment will take center stage Wednesday at a town hall meeting sponsored by the Florida Center for the Literary Arts of Miami-Dade Community College.

High-school and university criminal-justice and journalism students will participate in the event, which has been planned around the center's ''One Book, One Community'' region-wide reading initiative of Ernest J. Gaines' bestselling novel, A Lesson Before Dying. Panelists, speaking to the topic ''The Death Penalty: A Wrongful Conviction?'' will be Juan Roberto Melendez, an exonerated former death-row inmate; Edwin Colfax, executive director of the Death Penalty Education Project in Chicago, and Penny Brill, an assistant state attorney for Miami-Dade. Marvin Jones will moderate.

The session begins at 7:30 p.m. in Building 3, Room 3208-9 of MDCC's Wolfson Campus, 300 NE Second Ave., Miami.

At 8 p.m. May 27, Gaines will be on hand for a question-and-answer session about his novel, the story of an unusual friendship between a young schoolteacher and a doomed prisoner. Moderating will be Robert Strain. The author's appearance follows a 7:30 p.m. dramatic reading of Romulus Linney's two-act play adapted from the book by GableStage actors. Both events will be held in the Wolfson Campus's Building 1 Auditorium.

All presentations are free. Call 305-237-7261 for information.

MARGARIA FICHTNER