This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Schools

CT Murder Victim's Mother, Former Death Row Inmate To Speak, Urge Repeal of 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 was murdered in 2007, will be sharing their tragic stories and calling for repeal of Connecticut’s death penalty.

Ms. Coward, whose 18-year old son Tyler was shot to death, 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.”

Find out what's happening in Middletownwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Mr. Meléndez-Colón is among the 138 death row inmates in the U.S. to be exonerated based on innocence since 1973. He was convicted and sentenced in 1984 even though there was no physical evidence of any kind. After 16 long years, a transcript was found of the taped confession of the real killer. It was later determined that 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.”

Find out what's happening in Middletownwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

 
We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?