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Freed Man Yearns For Simple Pleasures

Juan Melendez was released Thursday after spending 17 years on death row.

Saturday, January 5, 2002

By GARY FINEOUT
& JULIA FERRANTE The Ledger

TALLAHASSEE -- Juan Roberto Melendez wants to spend his first few days of freedom doing some very simple things: looking at the stars, maybe eating some food from a fast-food restaurant and going to live with his elderly mother in Puerto Rico.

The 50-year-old Melendez, who was freed Thursday after spending 17 years on Florida's death row, said he didn't want to be "negative" and talk about how he was treated in prison or how he felt about the Polk County prosecutors who charged him with murder.

"It's a happy day for me now," Melendez said. "I'm just glad to be out and glad that I can make it back home and take care of my mama. Let's talk about good things. I want to see the stars and the moon."

But Melendez -- whose newfound freedom adds to the ongoing criticism of the death penalty -- reasserted that he was innocent of the 1983 slaying of Auburndale cosmetology school owner Delbert "Mr. Del" Baker. The one-time fruit picker, who was arrested at an orchard in Pennsylvania months after the murder, said he did not know the victim and has never set foot in Auburndale.

And if he is innocent, reasoned Melendez and his attorneys, others on Florida's death row may be as well.

"There's a lot of innocent men on death row nationwide," said Melendez, who as of midday Friday said he had not slept since the night before, when he was released from Union Correctional Institution. "If you find one, you will find 20, 30, 40, maybe hundreds."

Melendez was freed Thursday after prosecutors in Polk County said they did not have enough evidence to convict him in a new trial. After years of losing appeals, Melendez's 1984 conviction was thrown out after a transcript of another man's confession to the crime was discovered in 1999.

Prosecutors continue to maintain that Melendez was guilty, as does a juror who voted to convict him.

"He's lucky he's free because he's guilty in my opinion," said Jim Lear, a former Winter Haven city commissioner who served as foreman of the jury. "I remember it like it was yesterday. There were four witnesses who said Melendez was elsewhere the day of the murder, but they were pathetic."

Lear, who with his wife owned a beauty salon in Winter Haven, knew Baker, owner of Mr. Del's Beauty School in Auburndale. Lear also knew the state attorney at the time, the presiding judge and several other judges.

He said an inmate's testimony that Melendez confessed to the killing in jail convinced him that Melendez was guilty.

The inmate, David Luna Falcon, testified that Melendez told him he slit Baker's throat and then shot him in the back of the head after Baker begged for his life. Falcon is now dead. Another witness who also testified that he drove Melendez to the beauty shop later recanted his testimony.

But a Hillsborough County circuit judge in December granted a new trial to Melendez and criticized prosecutors for withholding police reports, notes and interviews with a witness who said another man was involved in Baker's death.

The case was moved from the Polk County court to a Hillsborough court because Roger Alcott, the defense attorney in the case, has since become a circuit judge, said Chip Thullbery, administrative assistant state attorney. The Polk judges recused themselves from the case because Alcott would have been a witness in the latest appeal.

Lear, however, said if there was other evidence that did not come to light at the original trial it was the fault of the judge.

"The judge knows 10 times more than the jury will ever know, and that's always the case," Lear said. "The judge had a choice. He didn't have to go with the jury's recommenda-tion."

The jury initially split 6-6 on the verdict, Lear said. Eventually, all but one juror was convinced of Melendez's guilt. The jury later voted 9-3 in favor of the death penalty.

"We had a hung jury for quite a while. It was 11-1 because an elderly woman said there was no way she could find a nice-looking young man like Juan guilty," Lear said. "Juan had a way of looking at the jury. He would cock his head back and look at you like a puppy dog. During the trial, he looked like a schoolboy."

Lear said the woman changed her mind after Lear showed her a photograph introduced by prosecutors of Melendez with a long Afro hair style and eyes "as big as silver dollars."

The State Attorney's Office said prosecutors didn't mis-handle the case. Thullbery said prosecutors did not hide tran-scripts or reports, and they do not think they are obligated to turn over notes generated during interviews.

If a witness claims responsibility for a crime during the investigation of a case, the state is obligated to share the information with the defense, Thullbery said. But the state thinks it is not obligated to turn over notes.

The release of Melendez marks the 22nd time since the death penalty was reinstated in the late 70's that someone sentenced to death has been freed in Florida, said Martin McLain, a lawyer who specializes in handling death penalty cases.

McLain and other anti-death-penalty advocates said the case shows why Florida should institute a moratorium on the death penalty. In late 2000, DNA evidence exonerated Frank Lee Smith nearly 11 months after he had died of cancer on death row.

A spokeswoman for Gov. Jeb Bush -- who has tried to speed up the rate of executions in Florida -- rejected the sugges-tion.

"We will not be calling for a moratorium," said Katie Baur. "There's no proof that this man was wrongfully convicted. He had access to multiple levels of appeals, and at every level he was found guilty. Floridians have spoken out on this issue and overwhelmingly support capital punishment when violent murders are committed against innocent people. Imposing a moratorium without any basis for doing so would subvert justice."

Melendez, a Brooklyn native who was 33 at the time of his conviction and now has traces of silver in his hair, said he thinks the death penalty is "immoral." He said that the isolation and loneliness of living on death row can bear down on people unless they have faith in something bigger. "They really don't have to kill you, they are killing you inside already," Melendez said.

He said he survived by his belief in Christianity and by keeping himself busy, such as learning how to read and write in English. Melendez said he tried to stay informed about the outside world -- but McLain said Melendez had never seen a compact disc player until Thursday night when he spent the night at the home of one of his lawyers.

Yet Melendez, who called himself a "simple, simple, simple man," would not say whether he would sue the state for the "17 years, eight months and one day" he has spent in custody. He said that was business better left to "lawyers," and he had no time to be "bitter." Instead he hopes his case will change the system in the long run.

"Nothing they can do to make it up to me," Melendez said. "The only thing they can do is give me my time back, and that's impossible. I cannot be bitter. I hope and pray that other people can help themselves with this case."

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