Roger Keith Coleman (November 1, 1958 – May 20, 1992) was an American convicted murderer and rapist who was executed on May 20, 1992, for the rape and murder of his 19-year-old sister-in-law, Wanda Faye McCoy, at her home in Grundy, Virginia on the night of March 10, 1981. A lifelong resident of Grundy, Coleman had worked as a coal miner.
Coleman had a history of sexual misconduct and crime dating back to adolescence. At age thirteen he was brought before juvenile court for making obscene phone calls to his female classmates. He later received a three-year prison sentence for the attempted rape of a local woman in 1977 and was paroled in 1979. After his release, he was a suspect in an indecent exposure incident at the Grundy public library in January 1981. Though he was never charged with this crime, the librarians positively identified Coleman as the perpetrator after his subsequent arrest for the murder of his sister-in-law. Suspicion quickly fell upon Coleman as the perpetrator of McCoy's murder, given his criminal history and after it was discovered that he had reported for work that day but had been temporarily dismissed from his job for the evening. Coleman could produce no clear alibi for his whereabouts during the time frame of the crime and as the investigation continued, he was subsequently arrested and brought to trial. He was convicted of the crimes and sentenced to death in 1982.
After his conviction, Coleman would become known nationally and internationally to death penalty opponents, who seized upon his claims of injustice by the legal system and brought considerable media attention to the case. Coleman's case was discussed on major television shows such as the Phil Donahue Show, Larry King Live, Nightline, and Today, and in major publications including the New York Times, Time, and the Washington Post. Despite multiple appeals and attempts to win a new trial, his sentence was carried out in 1992 amid a storm of national and international media attention and protests. Coleman maintained his innocence throughout his incarceration and eventual execution.[1]
Coleman's case drew national and worldwide attention before and after his execution because of his repeated claims of innocence. Appeals were supported by the anti-death penalty movement. After his death, his was the second case nationally in which DNA evidence was analyzed of an executed man.[2] In January 2006, Virginia Governor Mark Warner announced that testing of DNA evidence had conclusively proven that Coleman was guilty of the crime.
^Maria Gold and Michael D. Shear, "DNA Tests Confirm Guilt of Executed Man", Washington Post, 12 January 2006; Quote: "The testing in Coleman's case marks only the second time nationwide that DNA tests have been performed after an execution. In 2000, tests ordered by a Georgia judge in the case of Ellis W. Felker, who was executed in 1996, were inconclusive."; accessed 26 May 2017
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