"An innocent man is going to be murdered tonight," Roger Coleman said as he was strapped into the electric chair at Virginia's Greensville Correctional Center on May 20, 1992.
For 13 years, his case was held up by those hoping to abolish the death penalty. The argument was that Coleman was an innocent man, convicted by a court system that would allow a man with no motive, means or opportunity to be executed for another's crime.
On Thursday, DNA evidence proved Coleman was a liar, a rapist, a murderer. Virginia Gov. Mark Warner agreed in December to have Coleman's DNA retested. That test proved the odds of Coleman being innocent are one in 19 million.
It is a bitter pill for me to swallow. You see, I believed Coleman's cries of innocence.
I spent more than a year researching the case in depth. I read the court transcripts and saw how shoddy the evidence was that convinced a jury of Coleman's peers to execute him.
I saw a 10-year appeals process during which Coleman never got to have his case re-examined by higher courts because his lawyers missed a filing deadline.
He was articulate, intelligent, and he had an airtight alibi, one that only allowed him a 10-minute window during which to commit the rape and murder of his sister-in-law and escape unscathed.
All this, yet many death penalty proponents will say with unblinking eyes that the system worked. Despite all the flaws in our justice system, a guilty man was punished for his crime. Justice was done, case closed.
So why do I feel sick to my stomach now?
Yes, we now know that Roger Coleman lied. He committed the crime, and he was executed for it. But this case goes beyond proving one man's guilt or innocence.
We, as a nation, still need to examine the death penalty in our country. We must examine it because the system worked. We must examine the system that could execute a man based on circumstantial evidence, that would refuse to even hear his appeals because of a clerical error.
Why? Because if we don't, we'll all remember Coleman's case 20 years from now as the case conservatives used to further the "faster means better" mentality that seems to be the popular one in our nation.
"The system worked," is what we'll hear. "Coleman was guilty as sin, and he still got 10 years of appeals at the expense of taxpayers!"
It won't take long for laws to be passed limiting the rights of convicted prisoners to expensive DNA tests. They'll be seen as wasting taxpayer money when we already know they're guilty. Twelve states already say prisoners don't have an inalienable right to DNA tests; soon, the 38 who do might follow.
Then prisoners will be given less time to make appeals and government funding for those appeals will begin to disappear. Prisoners already have inadequate legal council after the trial stage ends. The execution process will only become faster as the rights prisoners have to prove their innocence are eliminated.
Eventually, because of the proven guilt of a man we believed was innocent, a new person will take Coleman's place in history. This person will be executed because the checks and balances preventing wrongful executions were eliminated.
Because one man, who did not receive an unbiased trial or a full appeals process, was found to be guilty after all.
Because the system worked.
Read More
Three Air Jam teams take home the win
October 12, 2012Nineteen teams shimmied, shook and flipped for a sold out John R. Emens Auditorium on Thursday night during the 25th annual Air Jam.
Bill Clinton Speaks at North Central High School
October 12, 2012Former President's Speech Could Have Effect on State Senate Race
