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January 12, 2006

Death Penality News

So far, no one has been able to offer proof that an innocent person has ever been executed. And here's the latest.

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, 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 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.

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.

Posted by Darleen at January 12, 2006 03:11 PM

Comments

Darleen, how many cases of innocent persons being sent to Death Row have you overlooked because your mind is already made up about this issue-- and you naturally chose to highight the above article because it confirms your closed mind's conclusion?

The fact is, more than 118 people have been exonerated from death row since 1972-- people whose innocence was proven after conviction, and who would have been executed had more people like yourself (or Alito, for that matter) been in key positions of our judicial system. You can look this statistic up (and many others, such as the number of people exonerated by DNA testing: 108, including 12 on death row)..but I doubt you will ever bother. Sad.

Posted by: Brad at January 12, 2006 06:17 PM

Brad


Did you not read my first sentence? And the fact that DNA testing has been used to exonerate AND convict (you know...all those COLD CASES that DNA has now solved?) is wonderful! Shows the system, while not perfect, is doing all it can to arrive at justice.


I happen to believe that henious murderers must be executed in demonstration of a society's seriousness in valuing life.

You may reasonably disagree, but I doubt it. Sad.

Posted by: Darleen at January 12, 2006 06:40 PM

I happen to believe that henious murderers must be executed in demonstration of a society's seriousness in valuing life

An INCREDIBLE statement, Darleen...and very revealing.

Another way to phrase your feeling about this issue: "we had to kill the patient in order to save him"

Posted by: Brad at January 12, 2006 06:54 PM

Brad


Make of it as you will. I'd point out the judge who recently sentenced an admitted and convicted child rapist to 60 days in jail while professing that "punishment doesn't work." Do you not believe his "sentence" sent a message that society doesn't really value the life or integrity of children?

Since I work in the judiciary I've had the occassion to really see the havoc committed by people I can only designate as predators. These predators have no conscience, no consideration of the inherent value of other human beings. When society allows predators who willingly, lasciviously, and with delighted full intent to take life from others, just as the child rapist took the innocence when violently violating the child, why should they not get the ultimate punishment? What does it say about how society truly values life when it will not level justice on such predators?

Posted by: Darleen at January 12, 2006 07:35 PM

But the left believes there are no predators, just people who are misunderstood and need to be reached out to.

Posted by: Gahrie at January 12, 2006 08:13 PM

1 in 19 million? Isn't that roughly the chance of evolution occuring?

:)

Posted by: Steve at January 12, 2006 08:32 PM

Darleen, are you familiar with Sacco and Vanzetti?

Jaxebad

Posted by: Jaxebad at January 12, 2006 11:43 PM

Jaxebad:

Wake up. Sacco and Vanzetti were guilty.

Guess what? The Rosenbergs were too.

Posted by: Gahrie at January 13, 2006 12:53 AM

These predators have no conscience, no consideration of the inherent value of other human beings.

That isn't a factual statement, Darleen. It is your opinion, based on your personal encounters and experience. But is that how society--how our legal system-- is to be structured: on opinion and feeling?

Posted by: Brad at January 13, 2006 06:26 AM

apologies for not turning off the italicized quotations above...it must be obfuscating my commentary

Posted by: Brad at January 13, 2006 06:43 AM

Why is my observation of the nature of some murders "non-factual", Brad?

Would our society be better if Gacy, Bundy or Dahlmer were still alive? Is it not reasonable to conclude from the record that those males were, indeed, predators?

Posted by: Darleen at January 13, 2006 12:23 PM

Society is always better off when predators like the ones you cite are either behind bars or in an asylum.

The non-factual part of your assertion is that they have "no conscience, no consideration of the inherent value of other human beings." That's a sweeping generalization of a personal feeling about a vast number of people who exhibit criminal behavior. The law, which you well know is how we as a civilized society deal with problems, is not, should not, be based on personal feelings. We are a republic, not a lynch mob.

Posted by: Brad at January 13, 2006 02:15 PM

Brad

I'm not making a "sweeping generalization." I'm speaking specifically to those people who qualify statutorially and morally for the death penalty. That's not the murderer who kills in a fit of anger ... I'm specifically talking about murderers like Gacy or Bundy... people who ARE sociopaths... people with no internalized grasp that other human beings have worth.

And please, how is society "better off" when it sends the message to its citizens that life is not worthy of being defended by the ultimate sentence? That the worst of the worst - people who revel in bathing themselves in the blood of others - will live unmolested lives with full bellies, entertainment, contact with family and friends, possible celebrity status, further education, albeit it confined as the punishment for acts that go beyond the worst horror slasher film? And remember, LWOP people continue to murder, other prisoners, other guards or order the murder of people on the outside (see Clarence Ray Allen who will be executed next Tuesday)

Posted by: Darleen at January 13, 2006 03:49 PM

BTW, in regards to rule of law... the death penality is much more rooted in the US Constitution than a so-called right "to" abortion.

Posted by: Darleen at January 13, 2006 03:51 PM