Saturday, January 07, 2006
A BIG STEP
Bob Lewis of AP reports on the case of Roger Keith Coleman, executed by the State of Virginia in 1992 for rape and murder. Outgoing Virginia Governor Mark R. Warner has ordered retests of DNA from the crime scene:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060106/ap_on_re_us/execution_dna
As Lewis notes: "If the tests show Roger Keith Coleman did not rape and kill his sister-in-law in 1981, it will mark the first time in the United States that an executed person has been scientifically proved innocent"...
I don't know if this has been done before in other places. I do know that if he's proven innocent after the fact it will be a live grenade into the death-penalty issue.
Question: Do you suppose the government could be sued for wrongful death if it is determined he wasn't the killer?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060106/ap_on_re_us/execution_dna
As Lewis notes: "If the tests show Roger Keith Coleman did not rape and kill his sister-in-law in 1981, it will mark the first time in the United States that an executed person has been scientifically proved innocent"...
I don't know if this has been done before in other places. I do know that if he's proven innocent after the fact it will be a live grenade into the death-penalty issue.
Question: Do you suppose the government could be sued for wrongful death if it is determined he wasn't the killer?
