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Modern DNA testing put to rest decades of controversy
surrounding the guilt of Gary K. Coleman in the brutal rape and
murder of his 19-year old sister-in law, Wanda McCoy. The crime
rocked the small Appalachian coal town of Grundy, Virginia in
1981. The case gained national notoriety as Coleman appeared on
TV and even on the cover of Time magazine proclaiming his
innocence, which he did right up until his execution in 1992.
Coleman’s supporters and anti-death penalty activists kept the
case alive and hoped that new DNA techniques would finally
exonerate him. Instead, the new DNA testing proved that there is
a one in 19 million chance that semen found on the victim’s body
belonged to someone other than Gary Coleman.
The case is unique in that it is the first time a governor has
ordered post-execution DNA testing. In fact, it was one of the
last official acts of Virginia Governor Mark R. Warner before
his term ended in January of this year. The DNA was preserved in
a freezer at a California DNA laboratory by Edward Blake, the
forensic scientist who had performed earlier tests on the DNA
sample which narrowed the field, placing Coleman within 2
percent of the population that could have produced the sample,
according to the Washington Post. Blake was barred from testing
the evidence again without permission from the state of
Virginia, but he did not return it for fear it would be
destroyed.
The outcome of the new testing dealt a blow to death penalty
advocates who had hoped to use the case to sway public opinion
about the injustice of the death penalty. The Coleman case was
the subject of a book entitled, “May God Have Mercy, A True
Story of Crime and Punishment” by John Tucker.
Sources:
“DNA Tests Confirm Guilt of
Man Executed by VA,” Washington Post, January 13, 2006.
“Warner Orders DNA Testing in Case of Man Executed in ’92,”
Washington Post, January 6, 2006. |
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