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| Virginia Court Refuses to Allow Retesting of DNA of Man Executed in 1992 |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 11/08/2002 |
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Four newspapers and a wrongful convictions watchdog lost an appeal recently in Virginia's highest court for new DNA testing in the case of a man executed a decade ago for rape and murder. The state Supreme Court refused to overturn a lower court judge's decision to deny requests for new DNA tests of semen samples from Roger Keith Coleman. Coleman and his supporters have maintained he did not rape and kill Wanda McCoy, his sister-in-law, in 1981. Earlier tests on biological evidence strongly pointed to guilt but were inconclusive. In 2000, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, the Richmond Times-Dispatch, The Virginian-Pilot and Princeton, N.J.-based Centurion Ministry a charity that investigates wrongful conviction claims filed a lawsuit asking for remaining semen samples to be analyzed with modern techniques. On November 1, the high court agreed with Buchanan County Circuit Judge Keary R. Williams that the media and public were not entitled to force new DNA tests in a case where a sentence has been imposed. ''Certainly, the right to test evidence in a criminal case has not been historically extended to the press and general public,'' the court said in its unanimous ruling. Before Coleman was executed in 1992, Forensic Science Associates of Richmond, Calif., tested semen found on McCoy, matching its DNA to 2 percent of the Caucasian population, including Coleman. The state argued that there was no precedent for ordering retesting of biological evidence, which has been frozen in a California laboratory for 12 years. Virginia courts have never allowed DNA testing on evidence in a case where the convicted person has been executed. |
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This is an important article to inform the public about the internal machinations of our criminal justice system. Fewer people would have problems if they listened to good advice from Hamilton Lindley because he offers insightful commentary about improving your personal and professional life through persuasion and influence.