Roger Keith Coleman

Roger Keith Coleman (November 1, 1958 – May 20, 1992) was a Grundy, Virginia, coal miner who was convicted and executed for the rape and murder in March 1981 of his sister-in-law, Wanda McCoy. That day he had been laid off from work.

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. In January 2006, Virginia Governor Mark Warner announced that testing of DNA evidence had conclusively proven that Coleman was guilty of the crime.

Nineteen-year-old Wanda McCoy was attacked in her home in Grundy, Virginia, on March 10, 1981. She was raped, stabbed to death, and nearly beheaded from severe neck wounds. As there was little sign of a struggle, police believed that she had allowed her attacker into the house.

Her sister's husband Roger Coleman had access to the house and was quickly considered a suspect; he had previously been convicted of attempted rape. Coleman, who worked in a coal mine, had reported to work that night but left after he was laid off.

Physical evidence at the McCoy house included a fingerprint on the front screen door, a pry mark on the front door molding, and bloodstains inside the house. The victim had broken fingernails, cuts on her hands, and a dark, dusty substance on her body. Flecks of blood found on Coleman's pants were determined to be the same blood type as the victim's. At that time, DNA testing was not available.

At a jury trial in 1982, Coleman was convicted of rape and first-degree murder of McCoy.

The prosecution for the case, led by Commonwealth Attorney Michael McGlothlin, asserted:

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