Sister Helen Prejean

Juan Melendez spent 18 years on Florida’s death row for a crime he didn’t commit. His story was documented in the film Juan Melendez 6446. If  you think that a “truly innocent” person has no chance of ending up on death row, this film and Juan’s story will rock your world.

Even better, you have the chance to hear Juan speak about his own experience. If you’re in the Louisiville area or in Indianapolis in January, get along to one of Juan’s talks. Here’s where you can hear him speak:

• Monday, January 11, 6:30 p.m. University of Louisville School of Law, Louisville, KY.
• Tuesday, January 12, 12:30 p.m.-1:30 p.m. University of Indiana School of Law, Indianapolis, followed by screening of documentary “Juan Melendez 6446″ at 4:30 p.m. (also at U of I law school).
• Wednesday, January 13,  7:00 p.m. at Marian University, Indianapolis.
• Thursday, January 14, Central High School, Louisville at 12:45 p.m.

For more information about the Indiana events, contact Will McAuliffe, director of INcase.

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I’m thrilled for Troy Davis and his family that the United States Supreme Court issued a decision that new evidence of innocence merits a hearing in a federal court. My lawyer friend, Denny LeBoeuf, tells me we haven’t had such a decision from the Supreme Court in direct response to a plea from a district court in 50 years. It had to be that evidence of innocence was so palpable and Troy’s execution so imminent, that six members of the court threw regular procedural rules out the window.

But not all. There were two dissents, and one of them came from Justice Antonin Scalia. Here’s what he said.

“This court has never held that the Constitution forbids the execution of a convicted defendant who had a full and fair trial but is later able to convince a habeas court that he is ‘actually’ innocent.”

If you find that chilling, that means you get it.

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Juan Meléndez spent 17 years on Florida’s death row for a murder he did not commit. Although the real killer confessed, his confession was never shown to the defense and the jury never heard it.

Juan Meléndez – 6446 tells Juan’s story and the story of the dedicated people who stood by him and finally helped win his freedom.

Juan was present at this year’s National Campaign to End the Death Penalty conference in Pennsylvania in January, when we all got to see the premiere of this powerful  film. His mama was there, too. It was heartbreaking and maddening and it stirred the soul.

Now comes the news that Juan Meléndez – 6446 has been accepted to the New York Latino International Film Festival. It will be screened on Wednesday, July 29 and on Friday, July 31. Juan will be there for the screening on Friday. The documentary has also been accepted to the Montreal World Film Festival where it will be shown at the end of August.

If you live in the New York area or know someone who might be interested,  I encourage you to attend and spread the word. The film will be screened on Wednesday, July 29 at 5:00 PM at Clearview Cinemas Chelsea Screen 7; and on Friday, July 31 at 2:00 PM at Clearview Cinemas Chelsea Screen 8. For ticket information and to learn about other films that will be screened at the festival, please visit the New York Latino International Film Festival site.

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I want to share a letter I received from Kurt Rosenberg, the dedicated director of Witness To Innocence. Witness to Innocence is spearheaded by former death row prisoners who have been exonerated and released from death rows across the United States and who are now actively engaged in the struggle to end the death penalty. These courageous people bring a human face to the death penalty that no one else can.

Here’s what Kurt had to say after the recent exoneration of another two men from death row:

It’s become more clear than ever that as wrongfully convicted men continue to be released from death row, the issue of innocence is alive and well in the struggle to end the death penalty. Two more death-row exonerations last week – in the states that lead the nation in having sent innocent men to death row – have brought the nationwide total to 135 since 1973. Just over halfway through the year, there have been five exonerations in 2009, the most in the United States in a single year since 2004.

On Thursday, the Florida Supreme Court unanimously ordered that Herman Lindsey be set free because there wasn’t enough evidence to convict him of murdering a Fort Lauderdale pawnshop worker. Lindsey’s exoneration was the 23^rd in Florida since the reinstatement of the death penalty.

Three days earlier, Ronald Kitchen was exonerated in Illinois when the state’s Attorney General dropped all charges against him. Kitchen and a co-defendant had been convicted of a 1988 murder. He had confessed to the crime after being subject to interrogation by a police unit that used torturous tactics against suspects.

Kitchen’s case is yet another exoneration linked to disgraced former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge. Kitchen had claimed that detectives under Burge’s command coerced him into confessing to the murders through torture, including hitting him in the head with a telephone, punching him in the face, striking him in the groin, and kicking him. Years after Kitchen’s conviction, Police Commander Burge was fired after the Police Department Review Board ruled that he had used torture. Burge currently awaits trial on charges of obstruction of justice and perjury in relation to a civil suit regarding the torture allegations against him.

Kitchen’s exoneration was Illinois’ 20^th death-row exoneration. Florida and Illinois rank first and second in the United States, respectively, in death-row exonerations. Last week’s exonerations bring to four the number of death-row exonerations in the last two months. In mid-May, Paul House (Tennessee) and Daniel Wade Moore (Alabama) were also exonerated within three days of each other.

For more information on Lindsey’s exoneration, see: “Florida Supreme Court frees Death Row inmate in 1994 Broward murder” and “Death Row inmate convicted in 1994 Broward murder will be set free”. To read more about Kitchen’s exoneration, see “Burge-linked cases” and “Charges dropped in 20-year-old murder case”.

Kitchen after he was released from prison (photo Chicago Sun-Times)

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Manuel Ortiz is on death row in Louisiana for a crime he didn’t commit. His innocence hearing in February went well but both the prosecutor and defense attorney have more witnesses they want to call. We had hoped this next hearing would come at the end of this month, but now it’s not going to happen until April 21. That’s yet another month of waiting for Manuel.

I went to visit him last week with my friend and co-worker Rose Vines. He’d just learned about the month-long delay of the hearing and it hit him hard. Simply visiting on death row is emotionally sapping; it’s hard to imagine what it’s like to be stuck there, day after day, year in, year out, with the threat of execution hanging over you. Manuel’s patience in such circumstances is extraordinary.

I’ll let you know how things go after the next round in court. Keep Manuel in your thoughts and prayers.

- Sister Helen

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