DNA results due any day for Virginia inmate executed in 1992

[AmyStrange]

DNA results due any day for Virginia inmate executed in 1992
BY EMILIE LOUNSBERRY
Knight Ridder Newspapers

FROM: http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/nation/13602146.htm
PRINCETON, N.J. - Just before Roger Keith Coleman was executed in Virginia in the spring of 1992, Jim McCloskey made him a promise: to continue efforts to prove Coleman's innocence.

It has taken nearly 14 years, but McCloskey kept his word, and this week advanced DNA testing could show conclusively whether Coleman raped and murdered his sister-in-law, Wanda McCoy, in a tiny Appalachian coal town back in 1981.

If the tests demonstrate that Coleman was not the killer, it would mark the first time in America that scientific evidence has shown that an innocent man was put to death.

"I think he's going to get exonerated," said McCloskey, executive director of Centurion Ministries, a nonprofit organization here that works to free prisoners it believes have been convicted of murders or rapes they did not commit.

READ THE REST: http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/nation/13602146.htm

[pinerow]

1. That would certainly put a crimp in the "kill 'em all; crowd...

nt

[wakeme2008]

2. IMHO they will spin it that YES he did not rape her BUT he

killed her all the same :grr:

[Inland]

3. Aaaaaany day now. nt

[Bigmack]

4. "Besides, that DNA stuff...

.. is all scientific bullshit anyway. Anybody you know ever SEE a DNA?

He did it... he must have... the cops arrested him, didn't they? The jury found him guilty, didn't they?

Besides, if the state kills a couple of innocent people, it's no big thing!

Yeah... and if he didn't kill her, he probably WANTED to....."
- - - -
I can hear all the lame arguments now.

[Karmakaze]

5. hey it doesn't matter anyway...

Judge and maybe soon to be Justice, Alito refused to say a definite yess or no, but his general answer basically said that innocent people don't have the constitutional right not to be executed.

So it doesn't matter if he was in fact innocent. As long as there was no procedural errors in the case he had no right not to be executed.

Although this does raise a question. If this test proves he is innocent, could the executioners and judges etc be tried for murder?

[LostinVA]

12. I heard jurors of a very controversial 90's case say that

That all that DNA evidence didn't mean anything. *sigh*

[wellst0nev0ter]

6. I Hope The DNA Evidence Doesn't Exonerate Him

Because if it did and there is proof that this country has killed an innocent man, it will be too late for reform.

[seriousstan]

7. HE'S GUILTY!

[AmyStrange]

8. UPDATE: DNA Tests Confirm Man Executed in 1992 in Virginia Was Guilty

DNA Tests Confirm Man Executed in 1992 for Rape, Murder in Virginia Was Guilty
01-12-2006 2:07 PM
By KRISTEN GELINEAU, Associated Press Writer

FROM: http://neworleans.cox.net/cci/newsnational/national?_mode=view&_state=maximized&view=article&id=D8F3BDR0C
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, a spokeswoman for 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's spokeswoman Ellen Qualls 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.

READ THE REST: http://neworleans.cox.net/cci/newsnational/national?_mode=view&_state=maximized&view=article&id=D8F3BDR0C

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

[Corgigal]

16. wait a minute

Now I'm going from memory here BUT wasn't two different DNA samples found on this victim?

[dapper]

9. and I wonder...

if the advocates against the death penalty will be satisfied if it comes back as a positive match?

-or if they will keep going from case to case waiting for that one mistake when they can jump up and say ... ah-ha!

I'm not really for or against it but I can see a trend here with the death penalty activists.

Dap

[Lyric]

10. Those of us against the death penalty won't be satisfied until it's gone

That "one mistake" where it is conclusively proven that an innocent person was executed should be the national death knell for the death penalty. We cannot dispense error-proof justice. Therefore we have NO RIGHT to dispense irreparable penalties.

Killing people to prove that killing people is wrong is just insane.

[dapper]

11. an eye for an eye?

eom

[LostinVA]

13. Sorry, I'm not an Old Testament-era Israelite

I don't believe in state-mandated murder, any more than I believe in making a man marry his dead brother's wife, or offering my child up to God for sacrifice. I do believe in life in prison without any chance of parole. You, however, are free to believe anything you want... although I don't think you have a right to belittle and insult those of us who are against the DP.

[dapper]

14. Me Belittling? Insulting?

Your being a tad bit sensitive.

I said I saw a growing trend of activists analizing every Death Penalty case. They hoped upon hope that the DNA evidence would prove this person received the death penalty when he was not guilty. (acting like they were familiar with the case and they knew the truth)

...And then I wondered if this is going to be a growing trend, in which the activists are going to analyze every case waiting for that one mistake.

Sorry if it insulted you or belittled you but if the above makes you feel that way, your being too sensitive.

Dap

[Orsino]

15. No, we wouldn't have been...

...since, as your post noted, we're advocates against the death penalty.