On The DNA Test For Executed Man

[Annie]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/12/AR2006011201235_pf.html

DNA Tests Confirm Executed Va. Man Guilty

By KRISTEN GELINEAU
The Associated Press
Thursday, January 12, 2006; 7:53 PM

RICHMOND, Va. -- A new round of DNA tests that death penalty opponents believed might finally prove that an innocent man was executed in the United States confirmed instead that Roger Keith Coleman was guilty when he went to the electric chair in 1992.

In a case closely watched by both sides in the death penalty debate, Gov. Mark Warner announced that genetic testing on semen proved Coleman committed the 1981 rape and murder of his sister-in-law, Wanda McCoy.

Coleman went to his death proclaiming his innocence, and a finding that he was unjustly executed would have been explosive news that 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.

"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."

Coleman was convicted and sentenced to death in 1982 for the murder of McCoy, his wife's sister, who was found raped, stabbed and nearly beheaded in her home in the coal mining town of Grundy.

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 last month 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.

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.

As Coleman's execution drew near, his case drew international attention, with the well-spoken inmate pleading his innocence 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.

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."

A former prosecutor in the case said the results, while not surprising, were a relief.

"Quite frankly, I feel like the weight of the world has been lifted off of my shoulders," Grundy attorney Tom Scott said. "You can imagine, had it turned out differently, (the other prosecutor) and I certainly would have been scapegoats."

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.

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.

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...

 

[Hobbit]

Yet again bringing the number of innocent men executed to nil.

 

[NATO AIR]

Yet again bringing the number of innocent men executed to nil.

I would not so confidently presume that. It is undoubtedly a tragic fact that we have executed innocent people, and may continue to do so. Hell, look at the Cory Maye case. How many people slipped through the cracks before bloggers and the Innocence Project came along to expose the flaws in the system?

Not asking for an end to the death penalty or even a moritorium.... just a tightening up of standards, as well as vast, credible improvements in DNA testing use and availability, independent fact checking of prosecutor's actions, claims and their witnesses.

 

[Hobbit]

I would not so confidently presume that. It is undoubtedly a tragic fact that we have executed innocent people, and may continue to do so. Hell, look at the Cory Maye case. How many people slipped through the cracks before bloggers and the Innocence Project came along to expose the flaws in the system?

Not asking for an end to the death penalty or even a moritorium.... just a tightening up of standards, as well as vast, credible improvements in DNA testing use and availability, independent fact checking of prosecutor's actions, claims and their witnesses.

So far, no criminal executed in the U.S. has ever been posthumously exhonerated. There have been some excused from death row due to uncovered evidence, but that's one of the many reasons it takes so long to execute somebody.

The problem I have with sentencing in some cases is that the victim's family and friends testify at the trial. Should the sentence really be changed because the person killed was well liked?

 

[William Joyce]

You know the pro-crime crowd was itching for him to come up clean. But as I read the press accounts, it looked like he was guilty 3 ways to Sunday. What bothers me about the whole death penalty debate is that most anti-death penalty people are just the same America-hating jerks don't want to see the good guys ever win. I obviously don't want to see innocent people executed and I can even hear out a principled opposition to the death penalty, it's that most opponents are such greaseballs. For instance, you never see them show any concern for the family or other (usually) living relatives of the victims. For them, it's always the killer who's the cute little creature in need of cuddling. Or, as is often the case, the hero in need of worshipping.

And don't get me started on Mumia Abu-Jamal.

 

[manu1959]

can someone post a list of innocent men or women, innocent as proven by the same system that found them guilty, that were put to death by the US legal system?

 

[jAZ]

You know the pro-crime crowd ...

Do folks really let you get away with crap like that around here?

 

[manu1959]

Do folks really let you get away with crap like that around here?

you are here

man that was a terrible post i need to edit it

ok.

thank god you showed up someone has to put a stop to this

 

[jAZ]

you are here

I post, therefore I am.

 

[manu1959]

I post, therefore I am.

i don't belive in you......you are a sky pixie

 

[jAZ]

i don't belive in you......

athiest!

 

[manu1959]

athiest!

so....am i not allowed to practice my religion.....i put my exhibt on the courthouse lawn every christmas