The story which dominated the news in the past two weeks is the case of Roger Keith Coleman, who was executed in 1992. I’m assuming that most of you are aware of the verdict at this point, and even though this case has been previously addressed, I will include a short background. 

Just before Roger Keith Coleman was executed in Virginia in the spring of 1992, Jim McCloskey made him a promise: to continue efforts to prove Coleman's innocence. 

It has taken nearly 14 years, but McCloskey kept his word, and this week advanced DNA testing could show conclusively whether Coleman raped and murdered his sister-in-law, Wanda McCoy, in a tiny Appalachian coal town back in 1981. 

"I think he's going to get exonerated," said McCloskey, executive director of Centurion Ministries, a nonprofit organization here that works to free prisoners it believes have been convicted of murders or rapes they did not commit. 

Thomas R. Scott Jr., who helped prosecute the case, said he was hoping that the tests - which he believes will implicate Coleman - would bring peace to McCoy's family.  

"They've never had closure - that's for 25 years," he said. 

Since 1983, McCloskey's group has won the release of about three dozen prisoners, including four from Philadelphia, by reinvestigating the crimes and pressing the cases in court. 

Even with all that success, the Coleman case stands out because McCloskey was unable to stop the execution. 

After Coleman's death, McCloskey pressed on as DNA technology became more sophisticated. Centurion Ministries and several newspapers went to court in 2001 seeking retesting of semen removed from McCoy's body. The Virginia Supreme Court refused in 2002, so McCloskey turned to the governor. 

Last week, Warner said he ordered the testing - which began last month - because technological advances could provide forensic certainty that was not available when Coleman was convicted in 1982.  

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_10_jan_06/vol10_ref01.html 

DNA Tests Confirm Man Executed in 1992 for Rape, Murder in Virginia Was Guilty

New DNA tests confirmed the guilt of a man who went to his death in Virginia's electric chair in 1992 proclaiming his innocence, a spokeswoman for the governor said Thursday.

The case had been closely watched by both sides in the death penalty debate because no executed convict in the United States has ever been exonerated by scientific testing.

The tests, ordered by the governor last month, prove Roger Keith Coleman was guilty of the 1981 rape and murder of his sister-in-law, Gov. Mark R. Warner's spokeswoman Ellen Qualls said.

A finding of innocence would have been explosive news and could have had a powerful effect on the public's attitude toward capital punishment. Death penalty opponents have been warning for years that the risk of a grave and irreversible mistake by the criminal justice system is too great to allow capital punishment.

Initial DNA and blood tests in 1990 placed Coleman within the 0.2 percent of the population who could have produced the semen at the crime scene. But his lawyers said the expert they hired to conduct those initial DNA tests misinterpreted the results.

The governor agreed to a new round of more sophisticated DNA tests in one of his last official acts. Warner, who has been mentioned as a possible Democratic candidate for president in 2008, leaves office on Saturday.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_10_jan_06/vol10_ref02.html

The scientist who did the initial DNA tests for the Roger Keith Coleman case said he always expected new tests would back him up - but he's still not satisfied.

Edward Blake, who runs Forensic Science Associates in Richmond, Calif., is still raising questions about the investigation. For him, the re-testing of DNA evidence using the latest technology hardly nails shut the 25 year-old murder case. "I am concerned as a scientist," he said, calling the retesting, "a cynical exercise in manipulating a scientific investigation."

Blake's original test concluded that Coleman's DNA and sperm taken from victim Wanda McCoy's body shared a genetic type present in one in 50 people, or 2 percent of the population. The odds were slim that a more accurate test would show the wrong man was sent to his death.

Blake said he was the first forensic scientist to employ a procedure called polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, which is now common practice for making many copies of a strand of DNA. PCR allows scientists to extract good information from a tiny sample of blood, semen, saliva, skin or other tissues.

Early PCR testing was an improvement over what was done before - checking whether blood was type A, B, AB or O. But it was a far cry from anything that could be called fingerprinting. Blake carried out what was to be the standard test for several years - analysis of a gene called DQ alpha, which comes in a handful of distinct varieties.

Samples extracted from McCoy's body showed sperm from two different men, said Blake. One presumably came from her husband, he said. The other was linked to Coleman, but not conclusively.

This type of evidence was very good for exclusion, said Larry Presley, a forensic scientist from National Medical Services in Willow Grove, Pa. That is, if Coleman's DNA type did not match either type found on the victim it could have helped clear him. But the FBI, Presley said, didn't consider this type of match sufficient to demonstrate guilt.

Over the next 10 years, DNA typing improved, which is why Blake said he originally requested the Coleman samples get retested in 2000.

Current technology relies on a technique called Short Tandem Repeats, or STR. DNA carries its code in strings of four different chemical blocks, or bases, usually abbreviated as A,T,C, and G. But we are 99.9 percent identical to one another.

Scientists say the chance someone other than an identical twin matches your DNA on a modern STR analysis amounts to less than one in a trillion.

Before results from the STR came back Thursday, Blake said he regretted that the case had become political. The purpose of the retesting should have been to back up the historical record.

Instead, he said, the case was hijacked as part of the death penalty debate. He said he suspected the hype would backfire and hurt the cause of the anti-death penalty activists who played it up.

Blake said the DNA results do not prove that Coleman killed McCoy, and the initial investigation left open critical questions. Normally DNA samples taken from rape victims come on a swab, but Blake said he was given just the wooden stick from which he had to scrape DNA. No one ever explained what happened to the rest of the swab, he said.

Then, he learned that Coleman had blood spattered on his coveralls, but no one sent him that DNA for testing to see if it matched the victim. He was never told why, he said.

Blake asked for DNA testing of the blood samples along with a retesting of the semen but said the governor's office first told him they'd try to find them, then reported the samples were destroyed, he said. All the evidence, he said, was destroyed except for that tiny stick he kept frozen all these years.

This latest DNA testing shows Coleman had sex with the victim, said Blake, but not that he killed her. "They could have been having an affair," he said. "I haven't heard anyone ask that question and answer it."

"I've had cases like that," said Presley, "where the DNA had nothing whatever to do with the homicide." A recent one involved the murder of a part-time prostitute, he said. One of her last customers stood accused, though he was later cleared and someone else charged.

"Blake is a good scientist," said Presley. DNA testing is now capable of near perfect matching, he said, "But bottom line - there's no substitute for a good investigation."

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_10_jan_06/vol10_ref03.html

With the great amount of attention given to the Coleman case, there is new emphasis on the ongoing question: “Should DNA results lead to new trials?”

 
 

Supreme Court to decide if new scientific tests can help free a longtime convict, even after he has exhausted all his appeals.

Washington - When Carolyn Muncey's body was found in the woods near her home in rural Union County, Tenn., it didn't take police long to finger a suspect.

Paul House had a prior conviction for aggravated sexual assault and prosecutors later told the jury at his murder trial that investigators found his semen on Mrs. Muncey's clothing. Mr. House was convicted and sent to Tennessee's death row to await his execution.

There was just one problem - the semen belonged to the victim's husband, whom defense lawyers say is the actual killer.

Now 20 years after his murder conviction, House's case arrives Wednesday at the US Supreme Court where the justices are being asked to decide how federal courts should weigh scientific evidence - like DNA test results - when considering whether to grant a convict a new appeal even after all allowable appeals have been exhausted.

The case, House v. Bell, is important because it marks the first time the justices have agreed to examine a case involving post-conviction appeals based on DNA testing. The technology has proved efficient and reliable in identifying innocent defendants who have been convicted and imprisoned. But analysts say that technology may go for naught in many cases unless the high court explicitly recognizes the value of science-based evidence, even long after the crime has taken place and all appeals have been used up.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_10_jan_06/vol10_ref04.html

And, of course, the Coleman case also brings continued interest to DNA evidence being used in cases of wrongful convictions. I included some of this information in a previous issue, but these are the latest statistics:

DNA evidence has been used to clear 172 people wrongly convicted of crimes in 31 states since 1989. Some details from the Washington-based advocacy group The Innocence Project about DNA exonerations:

-The technology has helped overturn convictions for 98 blacks, 45 whites, 17 Latinos, one Asia-American, and 11 of unknown races.

-Fourteen people cleared by DNA evidence were at one time sentenced to death or served time on death row. The average time served by these people was 11.5 years.

-The true suspects and/or perpetrators were identified in more than a quarter of the DNA exoneration cases.

-Twenty-one states, the federal government and the District of Columbia have passed laws to compensate people who have been exonerated. Awards under these statutes vary greatly.

-At least 33 DNA exonerations involved false confessions or admissions.

-At least 37 of the DNA exonerations in the U.S. involved homicides. In two thirds of those cases, false confessions or incriminating statements were used to obtain the conviction.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_10_jan_06/vol10_ref05.html

On a much different note, we are seeing DNA evidence continuing to be used in a number of different state departments, including the Department of Social Services.

Armed with DNA testing kits, Lenoir County Department of Social Services child support staff now have a new tool that caseworkers can use to ensure children in Lenoir County receive every benefit they deserve from their biological fathers.

"We're very excited about this," Susan Moore, Child Assistance supervisor said about the department's capability to not only issue and enforce child support orders, but also conduct testing to establish paternity.

Just last month, DSS child support staff was trained by LabCorp to administer DNA testing to establish paternity in child support cases.

Child support fast facts:

Average number of cases handled at any given time: 250-300

Total cases in Lenoir County 2005: 6,053

Collected: $542,492.63

Cases under court order: 4,849

Cases not under order: 1,204

Percent of cases under order: 80 percent

Default rate: 35.9 percent (not making regular monthly child support payment)

2006 collection goal: $6.8 million dollars

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_10_jan_06/vol10_ref06.html

And the ever increasing demand for DNA testing is slowly being met by government support through grants and the creation of new high-tech facilities. 

In California, a state-of-the-art $75.7 million crime lab spanning five floors and more than 90,000 square feet is scheduled to adorn downtown San Jose in a little more than two years.  

The current lab is "located in the basement of a building, with cramped quarters and is nowhere near the size, capacity or sophistication of the new crime lab," Rado said. "Basically it's outdated."  

The new lab comes with some new features, including low-copy DNA and Mitochondrial DNA testing. Low-copy DNA testing allows laboratories to examine smaller amounts of DNA than conventional tests. Mitochondrial DNA analysis enables testing of DNA samples that are old, degraded or compromised in some way and cannot be examined with standard DNA testing methods. Neither low-copy DNA nor Mitochondrial DNA testing is available at the old lab, Delre said.  

He added that these new DNA testing methods are critical to providing investigators and prosecutors with valuable information and could help solve "cold cases."  

The new crime lab, which will be located in the intersection of West Hedding Street and Guadalupe Parkway, will house about 60 to 65 forensic investigators working for the county.  

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_10_jan_06/vol10_ref07.html 

Other cases covered in the news over the past two weeks include the following: 

California - A man accused of raping a 4-year-old girl could be released from jail thanks to DNA evidence suggesting he is innocent. 

Christopher Hamilton Fitzsimmons has been behind bars for seven months awaiting trial.

Prosecutors plan to dismiss charges against him today based upon preliminary test results that indicate DNA on the girl's clothing didn't come from Fitzsimmons.  

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_10_jan_06/vol10_ref08.html 
 

Texas - A Montgomery County man convicted of sexual assault in 1986 is expected to be freed after 18 years in prison based on recent DNA testing.  

Arthur M. Mumphrey, 42, was convicted of aggravated sexual assault and sentenced to 35 years behind bars for his alleged role in the rape of a 13-year-old girl in the Dobbin area, about 50 miles northwest of Houston.  

Mumphrey maintained his innocence, and DNA test results released earlier this week show Mumphrey's blood and saliva samples do not match stains on the victim and her clothes. 

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_10_jan_06/vol10_ref09.html 

Florida - When jurors couldn't decide last fall whether James "Gordo" Pacheco had pistol-whipped and stomped a man to death, prosecutors went back to their crime laboratory. 
 
They collected new DNA samples. They had technicians run new tests. 
 
Today, jurors are expected to learn what they found, and it's not good for Pacheco, 33, of DeLand, especially given his defense -- that he wasn't at the murder scene. 
 
This time around, the crime lab found the victim's DNA on Pacheco's shoes and shirt. It could be the difference between a hung jury -- which prosecutors wound up with in November at Pacheco's first trial -- and a conviction. 

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_10_jan_06/vol10_ref10.html 

Illinois - Forensic science stepped in where old-fashioned legwork couldn’t, and now Rockford police investigators believe they’ve solved two rape cases from years ago. 
 
Ernie Dwayne Johnson, 44, was arrested Friday at his home in the 2700 block of City View Court after he was linked to a pair of sexual-assault cases from 1990 and 1998 involving young boys. 
 
“Certainly, without DNA, these cases would have likely remained unsolved,” Rockford police Lt. Steve Pirages said Tuesday. 
 
“We were contacted by the crime lab. They told us there was a match between the cases and gave us a suspect name.” 

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_10_jan_06/vol10_ref11.html 

Illinois - DNA has tied a convicted felon on parole to two 1999 rapes and robberies of North Side women, authorities said. 
 
Vernon Thompson, 46, of the 5300 block of South Marshfield Avenue, was arrested Tuesday and charged with aggravated criminal sexual assault, kidnapping and robbery. 
 
Victims in the attacks identified Thompson in a lineup after he was identified by the DNA, police spokesman Patrick Camden said. A Cook County judge ordered him held without bond Wednesday. 

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_10_jan_06/vol10_ref12.html

Wisconsin - DNA evidence, which freed Steven Avery after proving another man committed a 1985 rape, is piling up against him in the murder of a 25-year-old photographer.

Authorities said Thursday that an FBI analysis of teeth and bone remains found in a burn pit at his family's salvage yard in rural Mishicot show they are consistent with the DNA of the photographer, Teresa Halbach of Hilbert.

Authorities have accused Avery of murdering Halbach and then burning her corpse to try to cover up the crime after she came to take pictures of a vehicle for sale at the salvage yard on Oct. 31. Avery lived next to the property.

Avery became a symbol of a flawed criminal justice system when he was freed in 2003 after spending 18 years in prison for the 1985 rape of a woman on a Lake Michigan beach. DNA tests exonerated Avery, who was originally convicted based on the woman's testimony, and pointed to a sex offender imprisoned for another rape.

After two years as a free man, Avery came under suspicion again when Halbach vanished. He was charged with first-degree intentional homicide and mutilating a corpse after authorities said they found charred remains that preliminary tests determined were of Halbach.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_10_jan_06/vol10_ref13.html

Ohio - A man convicted in a child-support case three years ago is now charged with murder after a DNA sample, required under a new state law for convicted felons, was matched to the 1994 killing of a college freshman.

The 35-year-old man hadn't been a suspect in her death until the DNA match was discovered last year. He was jailed Thursday on $1 billion bond.

Police say Jonathan J. Gravely didn't know the victim, 18-year-old Stephanie Hummer.

Hundreds of people were interviewed, and DNA testing eliminated several suspects, but the case remained unsolved.

Then, last year, a DNA sample from Gravely was submitted to a crime database. A new Ohio law required DNA samples be taken from anyone convicted of a felony, and Gravely had a 2003 felony conviction in the Columbus area for failure to pay child support, Sgt. Michael Woods said 

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_10_jan_06/vol10_ref14.html 

Ohio - Akron police believe they've solved a murder case that had been cold more than 10 years.  

Police say DNA evidence linked Donald Craig, a man already on death row for another murder, to the murder of 13-year-old Malissa Thomas.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_10_jan_06/vol10_ref15.html 

Florida - A 45-year-old St. Petersburg man who has spent more than half his life in prison for armed robbery and rape will be freed after DNA evidence created "significant doubt" about his guilt, prosecutors said Friday. 

The Hillsborough County State Attorney's Office said it will support a defense motion to vacate Alan Crotzer's 1982 convictions and 130-year prison sentence. His attorneys say the DNA evidence excludes him as the rapist, and a statement from a co-defendant further supports his contention that he wasn't even at the crime scene. 

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_10_jan_06/vol10_ref16.html

Washington - DNA tests on material found under Chelsea Harrison's fingernails will link the slain 14-year-old girl to Roy Wayne Russell, a prosecutor said Thursday as Russell's murder trial got under way.

James Senescu, deputy Clark County prosecuting attorney, told jurors in his opening statement they will hear from three experts on DNA evidence collected from Harrison's body, which was found naked in Russell's basement shower in the early morning of Nov. 2.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_10_jan_06/vol10_ref17.html 

Indiana - DNA tests led to charges against a Fort Wayne man accused of raping two women last summer. 

Edward D. Miller, 29, of the 4000 block of Hessen Cassel Road, was charged Wednesday with two counts of rape, two counts of criminal deviate conduct and two counts of being a habitual offender. 

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_10_jan_06/vol10_ref18.html 

New York - A 47-year-old convicted sex offender was found guilty Thursday of killing a mother of nine during a rape in her apartment nearly 23 years ago.  
 
After listening to just two days of prosecution testimony, an Onondaga County jury convicted Edward Kithcart of second-degree murder in the May 1983 slaying of Patricia "Barbara" Kilbourne.

During the short trial, Sheila Gentile from the Wallie Howard Center for Forensic Sciences in Syracuse testified she matched Kithcart's DNA to a semen stain on a pair of torn panties found under the victim's body. Another investigator testified that authorities obtained court-ordered hair and saliva samples for DNA testing from Kithcart in 1994. 

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_10_jan_06/vol10_ref19.html

Indiana - An Indiana State Police DNA analyst said today that DNA on a gray sweatshirt found at the Camm family murder scene was identified during tests last year with four different people - Charles Boney and his former girlfriend, as well as Kimberly Camm and her son, Bradley.

The sweatshirt is one of the most damaging pieces of physical evidence linking Boney to the crime scene. But the testimony for now didn't point the finger at Boney, who is accused of three counts of murder and conspiracy with co-defendant David Camm.

David Camm's wife, Kimberly, 35, and their two children, Bradley, 7, and Jill, 5, were found shot to death in the family's Georgetown-area garage in September 2000. Both Camm and Boney now are accused in the deaths.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_10_jan_06/vol10_ref20.html 

Florida - Fred Dewitt Cooper Jr., 27, of Bonita Springs, has been arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the slayings of Steven and Michelle Andrews of Gateway. 

“Mr. Cooper, through DNA evidence and other evidence, was identified and has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder," said Sheriff Mike Scott. 

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_10_jan_06/vol10_ref21.html 

Again, please send us your questions or concerns and our expert will provide honest and candid feedback, expert@dnalabsinternational.com.   

Editor: Karen Daurie

Karen.Daurie@DNALabsInternational.com  

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