Saturday, December 24, 2005

Virginia Governor to Sign Order for New Evidence That Could Exonerate Convict Executed in 1992

This story was on Wolf Blitzer's The Situation Room. I haven't been able to find it elsewhere. From the transcript:

Up to the very last minute he was led to an electric chair, strapped in and executed, a death row inmate swore his innocence, once saying -- and let me quote -- "They are going to kill me, and I am innocent." Roger Keith Coleman was executed in Virginia in 1992. Now, there are new efforts to determine if the wrong man was put to death.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, an official in Governor Mark Warner's office insists the governor has not gone through a recent epiphany on capital punishment, even though last month he commuted the death sentence of one death row inmate and now he's about to make a move that could change the course of history and alter the death penalty debate.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) TODD (voice-over): An official in Virginia Governor Mark Warner's office confirms to CNN the governor is preparing to sign an order for new DNA tests that could exonerate a man executed in 1992.

If these tests are done and do exonerate Roger Coleman, death penalty opponents say it would be the first time an executed convict is scientifically proven innocent since the death penalty was reinstated in the U.S. in 1976. But officials in the governor's office stress the evidence could also further implicate Coleman in the crime.

Death penalty proponents commonly argue that, despite the exonerations of a significant number of wrongly convicted death row inmates (the number of exonerations being more than one-tenth the number of people actually executed), there is no evidence that a United State has executed someone who was innocent. Evidence that this has, in fact, happened would be tragic, but would also be instrumental in (hopefully) preventing similar tragedies in the future.

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