NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Juan Melendez spent 17 years, eight months and one day on Florida’s death row for a crime he did not commit. He will share his story Thursday, April 6, at 7 p.m. in Vanderbilt University’s Sarratt Cinema.
The event is free and open to the public.
Melendez’s talk is part of the Project Dialogue series, a yearlong, university-wide program that seeks to involve the entire Vanderbilt community in public debate and discussion, and attempts to connect classroom learning with larger societal issues. This year’s theme is “Crime & The Ultimate Punishment.”
Melendez was exonerated and released from death row on January 3, 2002 after a transcript of a taped confession by the real killer was discovered in September 2000. There was no physical evidence linking Melendez to the crime and it was ultimately revealed that the real killer made statements to several people either directly confessing to the murder or stating that Melendez was not involved.
When he was released from prison, Melendez became the 99th death row inmate in the country to be exonerated and released since 1973.
Melendez has traveled the country sharing his story with others. He also works at home in Puerto Rico in a plantain field where he counsels troubled youth who work alongside him.
Project Dialogue, which started in 1989, is held every other year at the university and allows each student generation the opportunity to participate in two Project Dialogue series while attending Vanderbilt.
Other speakers featured as part of this year’s Project Dialogue series have included attorney and best-selling author Scott Turow, renown FBI criminal profiler John Douglas and former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft. For more information about upcoming events in the Project Dialogue series, visit www.vanderbilt.edu/dialogue/.
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Media Contact: Princine Lewis, 615-322-NEWS
princine.l.lewis@vanderbilt.edu