Newspapers ask for retesting of executed killer's DNA
By The Associated Press
09.13.02
RICHMOND, Va. — Four newspapers and a group that investigates wrongful conviction claims asked the Virginia Supreme Court to order new DNA testing in the case of a man who was executed 10 years ago.
Lawyers for Centurion Ministries of Princeton, N.J., and the newspapers urged the court Sept. 11 to overturn Buchanan County Circuit Judge Keary R. Williams' decision not to turn over the semen samples in the case of Roger Keith Coleman.
Coleman was executed for the March 10, 1981, rape and murder of his sister-in-law, Wanda Faye McCoy, in Grundy. Coleman and his supporters always maintained he was innocent, and the case attracted international attention.
DNA tests strongly suggested Coleman was guilty, but Centurion claims that advances in testing procedures could provide more conclusive results.
The newspapers — The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, the Richmond Times-Dispatch and The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk — contend the public has a right to know the results of modern testing.
The state opposes retesting the biological evidence, which has been frozen in a California laboratory for 12 years. Katherine Baldwin, senior assistant attorney general, told the court there is no legal precedent for granting the plaintiffs' request.
Meg Stone, lawyer for the newspapers, acknowledged that a ruling in her clients' favor would be unprecedented. She said the justices have "a historic opportunity, perhaps a one-time opportunity" to expand public access to evidence in court cases.
Justice Leroy Hassell Sr. said that if the court agreed with Stone, "the press would have a right to undertake testing in any criminal case — or any civil case, for that matter."
Centurion attorney Paul F. Enzinna said people walk into the courthouse every day and ask to seek court files and documents. He said his client's request for access to materials from a court proceeding is not that different.
"They're not asking for access," Baldwin countered. "They're asking for something far more than that."
She said the plaintiffs essentially are trying to take control of the evidence.
"They do not have any First Amendment right to take over for the government," she said.
Centurion and the newspapers have said they would share the cost of the testing and cooperate with the state in determining the testing facility and procedure.
Virginia courts have never allowed DNA testing on evidence in a case where the convicted person has been executed. Similar post-execution requests were made in the cases of Joseph O'Dell III, who was executed in 1997, and Derek R. Barnabei, who was executed in 2000.
The Supreme Court likely will rule in the Coleman case on Nov. 1.