May God Have Mercy: A True Story of Crime and Punishment - Hardcover

Tucker, John C.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393040321 ISBN 13: 9780393040326

Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc, 1997

Synopsis

A chilling real-life murder mystery describes how Roger Coleman, a young Virginia miner, was convicted and executed for the killing of his sister-in-law, a case in which there is compelling evidence that an innocent man died for a crime that someone else committed.

About this title

About the Author

John C. Tucker practiced law for many years in Chicago, where he was a leading criminal defense attorney. He now lives in Tidewater, Virginia, where he is following a second career as a writer.

Reviews

Set in the mining country of Buchanan County, Va., a fast-paced synopsis of a case that received national attention: the conviction and execution of Roger Coleman for the 1981 murder of his sister-in-law, Wanda McCoy. The evidence of the investigation, writes the author, indicates detectives decided almost immediately that miner Roger Coleman was the prime suspect, though according to witnesses who saw Coleman on the night of the murder, the medical examiner's timeline did not allow for him to have committed the crime. Coleman, at age 22, had done time for attempted rape and was presumed one of only a handful of people whom Wanda might have admitted to the house. He was charged and jailed without bond. Later he was indicted on the basis of his prior record, the family connection, the apparent lack of forced entry at the crime scene, and less-than-conclusive blood and hair evidence. When the case went to trial, says Tucker, it was tilted dramatically in favor of the prosecution. Afterward, an appeal by death-row advocates for Coleman, claiming that he had not received effective assistance of counsel at trial (his court-appointed lawyer had little trial experience and none in death-penalty cases) was dismissed because the notice of appeal was filed a day late. And the murder under mysterious circumstances of a most important new witness who might have earned him a retrial doomed Coleman's chances of reversing his conviction. Tucker, who was a criminal defense attorney in Chicago, brings a lawyer's thoroughness to his telling of the story. Allowing the known facts to stand for themselves, drawing on the work of the Coleman's death-row lawyers, the author builds a credible case for his innocence. A timely account of a questionable but irreversible verdict in a time when the number of executions is rising. (photos, not seen) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

At one time a leading criminal defense attorney, Tucker here investigates the 1992 execution of Roger Coleman, convicted of murder despite shaky evidence.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0393040321
• ISBN 13: 9780393040326
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 358