In his own words, Clemente Aguirre describes how he spent almost 15 years on death row in Florida for a crime he didn’t commit.
I know the torture of fighting against a government that wanted to kill me. The state saw me as just a disposable, undocumented immigrant, and I lost almost 15 years of my life because of it. All for a crime I didn’t commit.
In 2004, I was working in a restaurant, trying to learn to be a cook. On a night off, on my way home after visiting with some friends, I stopped next door to see my neighbors, as I often did. But when I walked inside their trailer, I found a bloody scene: the bodies of my neighbor Cheryl and her mother.
I was terrified. I tried to see if they were still breathing but couldn’t wake them. I feared whoever had hurt them might still be there. And I worried that if I called the police, they would think I did it and might deport me back to Honduras.
After some rest, I decided the right thing to do was go to the police. I had never been arrested or had any interaction with the police in my entire life, but I knew I needed to help.
My worst fears were realized. I became the only target of the police’s investigation. I didn’t understand what was happening; I barely spoke a word of English. The police told me they knew I was undocumented and threated to deport me if I didn’t sign documents that I couldn’t even read.
They made up a story about how I must have killed these women because they disrespected me. They saw me only for my Hispanic background and my undocumented status and decided I was guilty.
Only later did my lawyers discover that police had evidence that would have immediately cleared me, but they never even tested it.
After awaiting trial in jail for almost two years, I was found guilty of first-degree murder. A judge sentenced me to death after a jury couldn’t agree on whether or not I deserved to be executed. (Back then, Florida was one of the only states that allowed someone to get a death sentence even when the jury wasn’t unanimous.)
When the judge gave the ruling, I was in shock. I had been in denial up until that point. I couldn’t believe that the best country in the world would send an innocent man to prison, let alone to death. I was really scared.
In 2011, after seven years behind bars — including five years on death row — my lawyers were finally able to get forensics evidence tested that proved my innocence. I thought that would be it. I thought they’d let me out.
But I remained on death row for another five years. Courts refused to overturn my conviction. Even when they did, prosecutors announced they would retry me and seek the death penalty again.
The whole time, the same forensic evidence that proved my innocence showed that my neighbor Cheryl’s daughter — a white woman — was likely the person who killed them. She had also confessed to the murders on five separate occasions.
In 2018, after almost 15 years, I was finally exonerated. I walked off death row. But that very same day, they slapped handcuffs on me and took me into ICE custody, pending deportation. I never even had the chance to take in the fresh air of freedom before I was placed in a van and transported to another cell. Only because of the generosity of my attorneys, who covered the cost of bail, am I out today.
My struggle is not over.
I’m still fighting to stay in the United States, even though the state of Florida tried to kill me. I’m fighting for compensation for my wrongful imprisonment — something Florida says I don’t deserve because of my undocumented status at the time of my arrest. I’m fighting the Sheriff’s Department that railroaded me just because I was an immigrant. I’m fighting to be able to work, even though I cannot get a license or a state I.D. And I’m fighting to help other people who, like me, are undocumented victims caught in the criminal legal system.
Clemente is one of at least 185 people who have been exonerated from death row in the past 40 years. Other innocent people remain on death row, struggling to prove their case in courts that won’t hear their evidence. The death penalty is broken. It is time to end it once and for all.
