DNA could prove executed man innocent

DNA could prove executed man innocent
January 6, 2006 - 2:46PM

Virginia Governor Mark R Warner has ordered DNA evidence to be retested to determine if a man executed in 1992 was innocent.

If the testing shows Roger Keith Coleman did not rape and kill his sister-in-law in 1981, it will be the first time in the United States a person has been exonerated by scientific testing after his execution, according to death penalty opponents.

Warner said he ordered the tests because of technological advances that could provide a level of forensic certainty not available in the 1980s.

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 case drew international attention as the well spoken Coleman 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.

The 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 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.

Coleman was executed on May 20, 1992.

AP