Witnesses blast death penalty

"A death row 'survivor,' rabbi, jail superintendent and family members of murder victims turned out yesterday (Feb 5) to ask a study committee to repeal the state's death penalty on moral, policy and financial grounds.

'The death penalty is not about justice,' said Andrea LeBlanc of Lee, whose husband was killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. 'It's about revenge. Justice and revenge are not the same thing.'

Juan Melendez, 51, of New Mexico told of his nearly 18 years on Florida's death row before his appeal lawyers unearthed a taped confession of the real killer. His pro bono trial lawyer and the prosecutor had the confession all along but didn't use it.

As a result, Melendez, 33 at the time, went to trial on a Monday and was sentenced to death on a Friday.

'The system didn't save me," he said yesterday. 'I was saved in spite of the system.'

Lawmakers created the 20-member death penalty study commission last year after the state tried two death penalty cases, winning a death sentence in one and life without parole in the other. The commission has about a year to assess several difficult questions, including whether the death penalty deters crime, is used arbitrarily and covers the appropriate crimes."

 -Concord Monitor