POSTPONED: Duo Come to City to Advocate for Repeal of State's Death Penalty

Editor's Note: This event has ben cancelled due to storm Albert. Middletown Patch will let readers know when it is rescheduled.

On Saturday, Shiloh Baptist Church will host the powerful stories of two individuals whose lives were tragically altered by homicides — in a program advocating the repeal of the state's death penalty.

Juan Roberto Meléndez-Colón, who spent 17 years on Florida’s death row before being exonerated, and Victoria Coward of Connecticut whose son Tyler, 18, was murdered in 2007, will be sharing their accounts and calling for repeal of Connecticut’s death penalty at 6 p.m. at 322 Butternut Street in Middletown.

Coward will be representing a group of more than 100 murder victim family members in Connecticut who are opposed to capital punishment.

“The death penalty is given in less than 1 percent of cases, yet it sucks up millions of dollars that could be put toward crime prevention or victims' services,” Coward said. “Services such as professional help for my grieving daughters to process the death of their brother.”

Meléndez-Colón is among the 138 death row inmates in the United States to be exonerated based on innocence since 1973. He was convicted and sentenced in 1984, without physical evidence. After 16 years, a transcript was found of the taped confession by the real killer. It was later determined the prosecutor had withheld evidence.

“We must get rid of the death penalty because no matter how hard you try to fix the law, it is a human law, it is made and administered by humans and humans make mistakes,” Meléndez-Colón said. “Sooner or later, a mistake will be made and an innocent person will be executed in Connecticut.”

For information, call (860) 231-1489 or email ben.jones@cnadp.org.