this is HUGE

Did Virginia execute an innocent man? - With less than two weeks left in Gov. Mark R. Warner's term, time is running out for him to arrange DNA testing that could determine whether Virginia sent an innocent man to the electric chair in 1992.

If the tests show Roger Keith Coleman did not rape and murder his sister-in-law in 1981, it will mark the first time in the United States an executed person has been scientifically proved innocent, say death penalty opponents, who are keenly aware that such a result could have a powerful effect on public opinion.

holy fuck! it might actually be proven that innocent men are executed in the united states of america. yes, that's right yanks, your justice system just might be fallible. this could change so many people's minds about the death penalty. there have been so many innocent men exonerated from death row, but capital punishment supporters always use this as evidence that the system works (in my opinion, any system that takes away decades of a man's life, doesn't work, but whatever). to quote the life of david gale, "near martyrs don't count". this could prove the fucking system doesn't work, this man's death may not have been in vain.

A Gallup poll in October found that 64 percent of Americans support the death penalty. That is the lowest level in 27 years, down from a high of 80 percent in 1994.

these tests could lower it even more...

prediction: the tests are conducted and the result is inconclusive due to tampering.

and a sidenote... wasn't this guy in a city confidential? i vaguely recall watching it and thinking that their evidence was questionable.

Currently reading: Confessions of an Innocent Man : Torture and Survival In a Saudi Prison By William Sampson

posted by Courtney at 9:57 a.m.

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