From the Connecticut Network to Abolish the Death Penalty:
CT Murder Victim’s Mother & Former Death Row Inmate in BRIDGEPORT to urge repeal of death penalty
Thursday, November 3rd, 6pm, East End Baptist Church
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 (Nov. 3rd) in Bridgeport.
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.”
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.”
When: Thursday, November 3rd, 6:00pm
Where: East End Baptist Church
548 Central Avenue, Bridgeport
The hideous animals who butchered that family in Cheshire deserve no mercy. Some think the death penalty is too good for them. I concur. However, the application of the death penalty is flawed and imperfect. So long as there exists a single possibility an innocent person can be put to death, we have no right to impose that sentence on anyone.
With absolute proof positive, especially in the Cheshire case, the death penalty does its job. Regretfully, there are death penalties that have been imposed without evenhandedness. The most striking example is the execution of the Rosenbergs in the 1950s. David Greenglass, Ethel Rosenberg’s brother was also convicted of spying, but because he rolled on his sister and brother-in-law, escaped the electric chair.
*** EYE FOR AN EYE, NO? DAMNED IF YOU DO, DAMNED IF YOU DON’T! BUILD MORE PRI$ONS & THEY WILL COME! WHERE’S THE VICTIM’S RIGHTS? HEAVEN OR HELL; IF JUSTICE IS BLIND, WILL GOD SORT IT OUT? *** CHAOS ***