Not Everyone Who Claims to Be Wrongly Convicted Is Innocent

Centurion Ministries, an organization in New Jersey that worked steadfastly for years to determine David Milgaard's innocence, was disappointed to learn that the most recent man that they have been fighting for -- Ronald Coleman -- was indeed guilty of the crimes for which he had been convicted.

Coleman was an interesting precedence case because he was executed on Death Row in Virginia back in 1992. He went out protesting his innocence and Centurion Ministries took on his cause. One of the things that they wanted to prove was that the United States had inadvertently executed innocent men along the way. This would have helped to erode support for the death penalty, which is shared by approximately 64% of Americans, according to a Gallup poll. This is down from 80% who believed in the penalty in 1994.

Advocates against the death penalty and for the wrongly convicted were saddened to learn that Coleman's DNA matched the semen inside his sister-in-law, Wanda McCoy, who was raped and stabbed to death in 1981.

James Lockyer, one of the founders of AIDWYC, said: At least we found out the truth and that must be of some satisfaction to the family of the deceased, the Toronto Star reported.

Clearly, Coleman was not able to foresee the accuracy of the miraculous technology that we have today. Perhaps if he had known that he would have been caught in such a bold lie, he might not have protested his innocence and wasted precious time and energy on the part of his supporters. Nevertheless, just because one man who claimed that he was wrongly convicted was not, doesn't mean that there aren't countless men and women behind bars who don't deserve to be there.

Sigrid Mac