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| Home Front: Politix |
| DNA Tests Confirm Executed Va. Man Guilty |
| 2006-01-12 |
| Oh, I can't wait for the spin on this... RICHMOND, Va. - New DNA tests confirmed the guilt of a man who went to his death in Virginia's electric chair in 1992 proclaiming his innocence, the governor said Thursday. The case had been closely watched by both sides in the death penalty debate because no executed convict in the United States has ever been exonerated by scientific testing. The tests, ordered by the governor last month, prove Roger Keith Coleman was guilty of the 1981 rape and murder of his sister-in-law, Gov. Mark R. Warner said. Coleman was convicted and sentenced to death in 1982 for the murder of 19-year-old Wanda McCoy, his wife's sister, who was found raped, stabbed and nearly beheaded in her home in the coal mining town of Grundy. The report from the Centre of Forensic Sciences in Toronto concluded there was almost no conceivable doubt that Coleman was the source of the sperm found in the victim. "The probability that a randomly selected individual unrelated to Roger Coleman would coincidentally share the observed DNA profile is estimated to be 1 in 19 million," the report said. A finding of innocence would have been explosive news and almost certainly would have had a powerful effect on the public's attitude toward capital punishment. Death penalty opponents have argued for years that the risk of a grave and irreversible mistake by the criminal justice system is too great to allow capital punishment. Well, what about...did he write any children's books? "We have sought the truth using DNA technology not available at the time the commonwealth carried out the ultimate criminal sanction," Warner said in a statement. "The confirmation that Roger Coleman's DNA was present reaffirms the verdict and the sanction. Again, my prayers are with the family of Wanda McCoy at this time." Initial DNA and blood tests in 1990 placed Coleman within the 0.2 percent of the population who could have produced the semen at the crime scene. But his lawyers said the expert they hired to conduct those initial DNA tests misinterpreted the results. The governor agreed to a new round of more sophisticated DNA tests in one of his last official acts. Warner, who has been mentioned as a possible Democratic candidate for president in 2008, leaves office on Saturday. Coleman's case drew international attention as the well-spoken inmate pleaded his case on talk shows and in magazines and newspapers. Time magazine featured the coal miner on its cover. Pope John Paul II tried to block the execution. Then-Gov. L. Douglas Wilder's office was flooded with thousands of calls and letters of protest from around the world. They don't call them "cons" for nothing... Coleman's attorneys argued that he did not have time to commit the crime, that tests showed semen from two men was found inside McCoy and that another man bragged about murdering her. "An innocent man is going to be murdered tonight," the 33-year-old said moments before he was electrocuted on May 20, 1992. "When my innocence is proven, I hope America will realize the injustice of the death penalty as all other civilized countries have." Any comments on this now, Roger? Ooooops, sorry... Prosecutors said a mountain of other evidence pointed to Coleman as the killer: There was no sign of forced entry at McCoy's house, leading investigators to believe she knew her attacker; Coleman was previously convicted of the attempted rape of a teacher and was charged with exposing himself to a librarian two months before the murder; a pubic hair found on McCoy's body was consistent with Coleman's hair; and the original DNA tests placed him within a fraction of the population who could have left semen at the scene. Well, there won't be any of that recividism stuff from Roger anymore, will there? Four newspapers and Centurion Ministries, a New Jersey organization that investigated Coleman's case and became convinced of his innocence, sought a court order to have the evidence retested. The Virginia Supreme Court declined to order the testing in 2002, so Centurion Ministries asked Warner to intervene. So I'm sure everybody mentioned in this story will be admitting they were wrong, right? Right? Hello? |
| Posted by:tu3031 |
| #8 Note that 18,000 executions occur every year in the US, in our homes, our neighborhoods, our businesses, our streets. Where oh where are these glad handlers to demand 'due process' and 'appeals' for these people? If the state is unwilling, unable, or incapable of carrying out the sanction, then let the power revert back to the people where it was before the state lied and said it would perform justice and removed the culture of vendetta out of the hands of its citizens. |
| Posted by: Ebbeagum Cleque4324 2006-01-12 22:03 |
| #7 Dig his ass up and fry him again just for good measure! Have his lawyer sit on his lap. |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge 2006-01-12 18:43 |
| #6 maybe so Barbara, but in this day and age of DNA - the opponents of the death penalty are lying down with dogs - their credibility suffers with EVERY proven guilt by DNA - let's test em all and let the line form at the needle. There's no longer an excuse for lengthy appeals and delays other than full employment of anti-social lawyers |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-01-12 18:37 |
#5 Then-Gov. L. Douglas Wilder's office was flooded with thousands of calls and letters of protest from around the world.Oh, yeah - and by the way, Wilder doesn't take any crap from anyone. It's hard to fool him. And you can't "guilt" him. He's a Dem, but a sane one. If the Dems were more like Wilder, and less like Reid, they'd definitely run the country. I'd vote for him again in a heartbeat. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2006-01-12 17:16 |
| #4 Well at least somebody admits they were wrong... James McCloskey, executive director of Centurion Ministries, had been fighting to prove Coleman's innocence since 1988. The two shared Coleman's final meal together — cold slices of pizza — just a few hours before Coleman was executed."I now know that I was wrong. Indeed, this is a bitter pill to swallow," McCloskey said, describing Thursday's findings as "a kick in the stomach" and adding that he felt betrayed by Coleman. ...and enter the spinmeisters Death penalty opponents praised Warner's decision to order the testing but warned that Coleman's case does not mean the death penalty is infallible. "Obviously, one case does not in any way reflect on the correctness of the other 1,000 executions we've had in the last 30 years," said Peter Neufeld, co-founder of the Innocence Project. "Other governors should take their lead from Governor Warner and do post-execution testing in their cases, because ... there's no reason not to — it's all about getting to the truth." Unless it's not the truth we want to find... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2006-01-12 17:02 |
| #3 I've lived in Richmond for many years and am THOROUGHLY sick of this case. There was never any real doubt, but that doesn't stop the criminal-lovers. I know it's too much to hope that the usual suspects will now STFU. But I can dream, no? Any bets on when the Austrians or Italians will make Coleman an honorary citizen and ask for his moldering bones to be exhumed and buried in their "enlightened" country? >:-( |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2006-01-12 17:01 |
| #2 CNN all but tried and convicted the prosecutor last night. This one's going straight down the memory hole. |
| Posted by: Matt 2006-01-12 16:46 |
| #1 So I'm sure everybody mentioned in this story will be admitting they were wrong, right? Right? I'll bet they ask for more tests and scream conspiracy if they don't get them. |
| Posted by: DoDo 2006-01-12 16:29 |