Wrongful Conviction: Juan Melendez

Juan Roberto Meléndez-Colón spent almost 18 years in prison for a crime he did not commit before being exonerated in 2002. Meléndez-Colón, who could not afford an attorney, was convicted and sentenced to death within a week, even though there was no physical evidence against him. Had it not been for the fortuitous discovery of a transcript of the taped confession of the real killer 16 years after Meléndez-Colón was sentenced to death, he almost certainly would have been executed.

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