Its one of the passion plays one never gets tired of. Some poor guy becomes a left wing hero because he was executed for a crime that he did not commit. That proves the death penalty is heinous! Then it turns out that, well, he did in fact commit the crime. This year's Julius Rosenberg award goes to Roger Coleman.
Modern DNA tests have confirmed the guilt of a Virginia man who had proclaimed he was innocent of murder and rape even as he was strapped into the electric chair and executed more than a decade ago, the governor announced yesterday.
The results stunned and disappointed those who have fought a 25-year crusade to prove that Roger K. Coleman was innocent. They also dashed hopes among death penalty foes that the case would catalyze opposition to capital punishment across the country.
I am not a big supporter of the death penalty. Its just too expensive, given the extraordinary course that a case must go through. But it obviously has one big advantage. Juries very rarely convict in death penalty cases unless the evidence is overwhelming. A lot of innocent folk who have been cooling their heels in prison would have been pronounced not guilty if the prosecutor had made it a capital case. The proof of this is that it has been so hard to find any case where an innocent party was executed.
If Coleman had been innocent that would have proved the death penalty is wrong. He was guilty. What does that prove?
"The opportunity to bring new people into the abolitionist movement has been lost," said Phyllis Goldfarb, a professor at Boston College's law school.
But Goldfarb said that though the exoneration of an executed inmate could have profoundly eroded support for the death penalty, confirmation of Coleman's guilt won't change many opinions. "Supporters of the death penalty will be confirmed in their skepticism of claims of innocence," she said. "Opponents still have reason to oppose. The risk of executing innocents still exists."
Recent Comments