Roger Keith Coleman

Roger Keith Coleman (born November 1, 1958 - May 20, 1992 ) was a miner from Grundy, Virginia , who was executed for the murder of his sister-in-law Wanda McCoy .

Wanda McCoy was raped and murdered on March 10, 1981. There was little evidence of a struggle and it appeared that she had let the assailant into her house herself, although she rarely opened the door when she was home alone. Roger Coleman had access to the house and became a suspect. Coleman had reported for duty at the mine that night, but left when his shift was over. A fingerprint was found on the front door and traces of a crowbar on the door molding and blood stains in the house. The victim had broken fingernails, cuts in her hands and a dark, dusty substance on her body.

With the genetic analysis at the time, it was only possible to establish that Coleman was one of the 2% of the population to which the seized sperm traces matched. In addition, according to the defense, the body had traces of semen from two different men and there was a man who boasted that he had murdered the young woman.

On January 5, 2006, for the first time in US legal history, Virginia's Governor Mark R. Warner ordered a new DNA analysis that could have exonerated someone who had already been executed. However, the analysis published on January 12, 2006 came to the conclusion that the traces of semen that were found actually came from Coleman. Coleman had literally insisted on his innocence until his last breath. His last words, already sitting on the electric chair , included the sentence: “ An innocent man is going to be murdered tonight. " ( " An innocent man will be murdered tonight. " )

Web links

• Article on Tagesschau.de before the result is available (tagesschau.de archive)
• Article on Tagesschau.de after the result is available (tagesschau.de archive)