Authors: John C. Tucker
ISBN-13: 9780385332941, ISBN-10: 0385332947
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Date Published: August 1998
Edition: Reprinted Edition
An object lesson in the dangers of the death penalty: the execution of Roger Coleman for a murder almost no one believed he committed.
With executions on the rise nationwide, the story of Ronald Keith Coleman, as told by attorney-turned-author Tucker, might serve as a cautionary tale to an increasingly vindictive public. In 1982, Coleman was convicted of the rape and murder of his sister-in-law, Wanda Fay Thompson, and sentenced to die in Virginia's electric chair. Despite other leads and possible suspects, the investigation focused on Coleman from the beginning, in part due to his previous rape conviction. His defense was handled by two inexperienced lawyers, neither of whom had tried a murder case. Unresolved inconsistencies in the prosecution's case. How could Coleman have inflicted four-inch stab wounds with a three-inch knife? Why, if Coleman was freely admitted to the victim's home, were there pry marks on the door? And other problems created a climate of doubt that climaxed with a "Time" cover story that ran two days before Coleman's execution. Tucker paces his story with an eye to raising suspense as Coleman speeds through the appeals process and last-minute pleas. State policeman Jack Davidson, Virginia Appeals Court Judge Williams and U.S. Justice O'Connor come in for some shots, and the 11th-hour almost-heroes who worked tirelessly on Tucker's behalf are nearly canonized. What distinguishes Tucker's work is his sensitive rendering of the quality of the effort on Coleman's behalf and of the dignity with which Coleman, clearly a changed man, faced his death on May 20, 1992.
Book I. Murder | 1 |
1. Buchanan County, Virginia | 3 |
2. Brad and Wanda | 8 |
3. March 10, 1981 | 11 |
Book II. Roger | 17 |
4. Roger and Trish: Flash Floods and Mountain Hollows | 19 |
5. The Investigation | 27 |
6. Indictment | 53 |
7. Trial | 62 |
Book III. Death Row | 91 |
8. Life on the Row: Mecklenburg | 93 |
9. Death Row Angel | 97 |
10. Sharon | 100 |
11. The Choice Is Yours | 106 |
12. A Day Late | 110 |
Book IV. Jim and Kitty | 117 |
13. The Centurion | 119 |
14. New Records, New Science and a New Court | 125 |
15. Starting Over: Kitty Behan | 143 |
16. A New Suspect and Other Mysteries | 147 |
17. September 1990: Back to Grundy | 155 |
18. A Supreme Surprise | 173 |
19. Dr. Blake ReportsBack | 178 |
20. Back to Work | 182 |
21. A Case About Federalism | 190 |
22. Keeping On | 192 |
23. The State Responds | 201 |
24. Digging Deeper | 206 |
25. Setting a Date | 214 |
26. March 1992: Teresa | 220 |
27. Four Interviews | 225 |
28. Contact | 229 |
29. The Experts | 232 |
30. Roller Coaster | 239 |
31. Back to Court | 246 |
32. Russ Ford: Chaplain to the Dead | 252 |
33. End Game | 255 |
34. Back in Grundy: Jim McCloskey | 265 |
35. Grundy Comes to Richmond | 268 |
36. Saved? | 271 |
37. Deathwatch: Roger, Sharon and Russ | 275 |
38. Questions and Answers | 278 |
39. Judge Williams Weighs In | 283 |
40. Seven Days: Presto | 288 |
Book V. Roger | 303 |
41. Wednesday: Polygraph | 305 |
42. "At 11:00 P.M. on May 20, 1992" | 315 |
43. A Circle of Light | 331 |
44. Dave's Branch, May 23 | 334 |
45. Afterword | 336 |
Acknowledgments | 349 |
Index | 353 |