Virginia Governor Mark Warner has ordered DNA evi­dence retest­ed to deter­mine whether Roger Keith Coleman, who was exe­cut­ed in 1992, was actu­al­ly inno­cent. Warner said he ordered the tests because of tech­no­log­i­cal advances that could prove a lev­el of cer­tain­ty that was not avail­able at the time of Coleman’s exe­cu­tion.

Warner, who will leave office on January 14, not­ed, ​“This is an extra­or­di­nar­i­ly unique cir­cum­stance, where tech­nol­o­gy has advanced sig­nif­i­cant­ly and can be applied in the case of some­one who con­sis­tent­ly main­tained his inno­cence until exe­cu­tion. I believe we must always fol­low the avail­able facts to a more com­plete pic­ture of guilt or inno­cence.”

Since his exe­cu­tion, Coleman’s case has gen­er­at­ed a great deal of nation­al and inter­na­tion­al atten­tion. After the Virginia Supreme Court denied a request for new DNA test­ing made in 2002 by four news­pa­pers and Centurian Ministries, a New Jersey-based group that inves­ti­gates claims of inno­cence, a num­ber of requests for new DNA tests were direct­ed to Governor Warner. If the test­ing shows Coleman did not com­mit the crime for which he was exe­cut­ed, it would be the first time in the United States that a per­son was exon­er­at­ed by sci­en­tif­ic test­ing after his execution.

(Associated Press, January 5, 2006) See Innocence.

Citation Guide