Miren Gutierrez* interviews LUIS ROSARIO ALBERT, filmmaker
ROME, Apr 28 (IPS) – Puerto Rican Juan Melendez spent more than 17 years on death row in a Florida prison for a 1983 murder to which another man had repeatedly confessed – evidence prosecutors withheld. He was only released in 2002. Now a documentary by Luis Rosario Albert tells Melendez’s story, the multifaceted circumstances that surrounded it and the human rights struggle in Puerto Rico that followed.The modern death penalty was introduced to Puerto Rico in 1898 by the U.S. government established when Spain turned Puerto Rico over following the Spanish American War. Puerto Rico abolished the death penalty in 1929, two years after their last execution. In 1952, when Puerto Rico drafted and ratified its own constitution, the Bill of Rights included the decree “the death penalty shall not exist.”
However, because of Puerto Rico’s status as a Commonwealth of the U.S., it is subject to some federal laws, and the U.S. has sought the death penalty on federal charges in a number of cases, including Melendez’s. This has been considered by many to be a betrayal of the island’s autonomy.
In an e-mail interview, Albert says the “reasons for Juan’s release do not appear to have been related in any way to Puerto Rican opposition to the death penalty, although groups such as the Puerto Rican Coalition Against the Death Penalty, and the Comision de Derechos Civiles de Puerto Rico helped promote Juan’s story since his release. Juan’s story has provided a very effective example for educating the people of Puerto Rico about the death penalty system.”
IPS: So far, you have done documentaries illustrating Puerto Rican culture. Why this change in subject?
LUIS ROSARIO ALBERT: This case struck me because after being on death row for almost 18 years for a crime he didn’t commit, Juan has become a prominent member of the abolition of the death penalty movement in the U.S. The first reason was that his story needed to be documented. I remember that after watching “The Exonerated”, the film by Bob Balaban, thinking why we cannot do something to help the cause of this fellow Puerto Rican.
Secondly, I have great respect for a person that after all that time in jail – he could have done other things… But he decided to fight back and help transform his reality by fighting the death penalty. He has a unique ability to tell his story in an especially captivating and dynamic way.
The extent of the injustice, and the remarkable way in which everything had to line up all at the same time in order for Juan to be exonerated is also extraordinary. Had everything not lined up perfectly, he would not be alive today.
His appellate attorney quitting and being replaced by a team of exceptional attorneys, and an investigator; his trial defence attorney becoming a judge which created a conflict of interest and required the case to be removed from the county where he was convicted; the fact that the case fell into the hands of a courageous female judge; the fortuitous rediscovery of the taped confession of the real killer 16 years after Juan had been sentenced to death – all of these factors had to come together – it is extraordinary that they did. And it is shocking to think what would have happened if they did not.
