I can't believe that came from your mouth!
Virginia
Cool Restaurant- Will They Show the Superfriends?
Sep 21st
This sounds like an awesome concept for a restaurant. A giant central Buffet of dried cereal and several types of milk. You get a choice of toppings such as fresh fruit and sugary candies to go with your cold cereal bowl.
It would be even better if they had TV’s everywhere showing classic saturday morning cartoons.
From the Richmond Times Dispatch here:
All cereal, all the time. It’s a Seinfeldian-slash-Saturday-morning-cartoon fantasy.
People whose idea of heaven is 37 kinds of cereal–or unlimited access to a particular favorite–are Out of the Box Cereal Co.’s target demo.
The new eatery by Virginia Commonwealth University was designed for folks who breakfast all day, or at least between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. To accompany its 37 cold cereal choices (plus oatmeal, come winter), Out of the Box offers six kinds of milk, eight kinds of fruit and three candy toppings.
Plus juices, coffees, teas, energy drinks, muffins and yogurt parfaits.
It’s a simple concept not unlike building your own burrito or salad. Belly up to the corrugated aluminum bar, name your poison and shuck out $1.99 to $3.99 for a 16- to 32-ounce snap-crackle-and-popalicious bowl of sugary goodness.
Heck with Starbucks. This is where the cool kids hang out.
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Loading ...Virginia is Nation’s Toughest on Spammers
Sep 6th
Yet another reason I love my State. Virginia has the nation’s toughest anti-spam penalties. And it has now been proven in a court of law. If you send spam to a Virginian, you risk one million dollars in bail plus 9 years in jail.
From the WaPo here:
The Court of Appeals of Virginia upheld yesterday what is believed to be the first conviction in the nation under a state anti-spamming law that makes it a felony to send unsolicited mass e-mails.
A North Carolina man was convicted in Loudoun County two years ago of illegally sending tens of thousands of e-mails to America Online customers. Prosecutors said Jeremy Jaynes flooded the servers at the Internet company’s headquarters in Loudoun with bulk e-mail advertisements for computer programs and stock pickers.
Jaynes was sentenced last year to nine years in prison on three counts of violating the state’s anti-spam law and was allowed to remain free on $1 million bond while his case was appealed. Thomas M. Wolf, an attorney for Jaynes, said he plans to appeal yesterday’s decision.
Virginia Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell said in a statement that his office will ask the court to revoke bond and order Jaynes to begin serving his sentence.
Jaynes’s attorneys argued in their appeal that the Loudoun court had no jurisdiction over the case because the e-mails were sent from Jaynes’s home in North Carolina. The appeal also contended that the anti-spam law restrains the constitutional right of free speech protected under the First Amendment.
But the three-judge panel disagreed, ruling in an opinion written by Judge James W. Haley Jr. that circuit courts have exclusive jurisdiction over felonies committed in their areas. The anti-spam law, Haley said, “prohibits trespassing on private computer networks through intentional misrepresentation, an activity that merits no First Amendment protection.”
“You purchase an e-mail address list, alter the transmission information in the header of your e-mail to avoid retaliation, and on Easter morning send out a three-word e-mail to thousands of people: ‘Christ is risen!’ You have committed a felony in Virginia,” Wolf said.
Yes, sending a falsified email saying Christ is risen is indeed spam, stupid. And it’s a sin too, I’m pretty sure.
It is about time that prosecution of these offenders has started to take hold. the federal law under the can spam act does not appear to have enough teeth, so I like that Virginia has aggressively gone after this.
I also liked the fact that the ACLU was advocating for the spammer in this case, and they lost too.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Will Morva Cop Killer
Aug 21st
Im blogging about this for a couple of reasons. First, I am a proud Virginian, and this happened just over the mountains from where I live. Second, there are stories that Democratic Governor Tim Kaine sent in an overpowering force of men to catch this guy, which is odd to me because it seems that the press may be trying to spin Kaine as being tough on crime.
Third, because Will Morva seems like a monumentally stupid person. He was originally jailed almost a year ago for attempted robbery of a convenience store in Blacksburg. His trial was continued twice and he spent almost a whole year in the county lockup awaiting his day in court. Just before trial, he went to the local hospital for a sprained wrist and ankle. While there, he overpowered a cop, took his gun and shot and killed a security guard at the hospital.
Then Will Morva ran. He was spotted on a trail near Blacksburg, near the Virginia Tech campus, and Morva shot and killed a policeman trying to apprehend him. He was finally captured today after a massive manhunt involving “considerable” State Police resources, courtesy of Gov. Tim.
Why did this idiot Morva not just go to court and plead guilty and hope for time already served? Did he have a long prior arrest record? I dunno. What should have been a small time robber turned into double murderer. Virginia is very quick to execute its cop killers.
From the AP here:
BLACKSBURG, Va – Police say they have captured a fugitive suspected of killing a hospital guard and a sheriff’s deputy near the Virginia Tech campus.
Police had swarmed the campus and ordered everyone inside Monday as heavily armed officers with dogs and in helicopters searched for the fugitive.
The Montgomery County Jail inmate, William Morva, 24, had escaped from a hospital where he had been taken for treatment of a sprained wrist and ankle early Sunday.
Monday morning, Sheriff’s Cpl. Eric E. Sutphin was closing in on Morva along a trail just off the university campus when Sutphin was fatally shot, the sheriff’s department said.
Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said he dispatched “considerable” Virginia State Police resources to the 2,600-acre campus and assured students’ parents that every effort was being made to minimize the danger.
According to police, Morva overpowered a sheriff’s deputy, took the deputy’s gun and then shot an unarmed hospital security guard, authorities said. The hospital guard was identified as Derrick McFarland, 26. The deputy was in stable condition with injuries he suffered in the attack.
Im glad that the Blacksburg Police had all the help they needed. But will Governor Kaine use this much manpower to catch all of the fugitives in VA?
Update: It seems that Morva was wanted in a string of armed robberies from last summer. He was definitely facing several years behind bars. He could have still had his sentence dramatically reduced for good behavior and time served.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Springfield Man Cuts Off Own Hand For Allah
Jul 25th
This is a bizarre story that I heard on the Sports Junkies morning show while I was driving into work this morning. It seems that a mentally disturbed man walked into a Springfield Arabic and Mediterranean grocery store and used a meat slicer from the butcher’s counter to cut off his own hand. He did this to prove his faith to a bunch of kids outside the store. And he did it in front of his own son. Egads.
From the Washington Post here:
Customer at Market in Springfield Cuts Off His Hand
Igbal Asghar reached across the counter at Super Halal Meat market and passed two butchered chickens to the man with the familiar face. Then he ducked into the walk-in freezer to fetch the customer’s second order, goat meat.
When the butcher stepped out seconds later, the customer’s severed left hand lay on the floor by the meat saw, Asghar said. The customer ran down the Springfield store’s center aisle and into the front parking lot, leaving a trail of blood and yelling repeatedly that he was “not a terrorist.” Outside, another witness said, the man announced that he had used the meat saw to cut off his hand “for Allah.”
“I don’t know what happened to that guy,” Asghar, 45, said as he leaned yesterday against a stack of Pakistan Link newspapers at the small strip mall store in the Franconia area, which caters to customers from India, Afghanistan and Pakistan. “We are shaking still when we are talking about it.”
In the parking lot were young men admiring a friend’s new motorcycle, Sinsunwal said, when the man walked coolly toward them. The man was holding aloft his bleeding left arm — sliced several inches above the wrist – and using his right hand to hold up a photo identification badge that hung around his neck.
“He said, ‘I did this for Allah’ — God,” Sinsunwal said.
I have eaten lunch at this shop. They have great gyros, greek salads and lots of different types of hummus. They have candy and nuts and dates from all over the Middle East and the Mediterranean, and immigrants from all over Northern Virginia go there to get a little taste of home.
The WaPo article goes on to say how the man with the severed hand chased the teenagers into another store. I can only speculate that he may have sternly disapproved of how the teens were becoming too westernized with their fancy motorcycles. The crazy man wanted to prove to them that Allah was great. Eek.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Witch of Pungo Exonerated
Jul 10th
As a Virginia native and having grown up near Va Beach, I was familiar with the folk tales surrounding the “Witch of Pungo.” Grace Sherwood may have been a pain in the neck to her neighbors, and she probably had way too many cats, but she was not a witch.
And where some people see a tragic miscarriage of justice, I see a very funny story on why it is important to not pester your neighbors and to keep a good lawyer on retainer.
From the AP here:
Va. governor exonerates convicted witch
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – The Witch of Pungo is no longer a witch. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine on Monday exonerated Grace Sherwood, who 300 years ago became Virginia’s only woman convicted as a witch tried by water.
“With 300 years of hindsight, we all certainly can agree that trial by water is an injustice,” Kaine wrote.
Sherwood, a midwife who at times wore men’s clothes, lived in what today is the rural Pungo neighborhood, and later became known as “The Witch of Pungo.” Her neighbors thought she was a witch who ruined crops, killed livestock and conjured storms, and she went to court a dozen times, either to fight witchcraft charges or to sue her accusers for slander.
She was 46 when she was accused in her final case of using her powers to cause a neighbor to miscarry.
On July 10, 1706, Sherwood was tied cross-bound, her thumbs to her toes and dropped into the Lynnhaven River and floated proof she was guilty because the pure water cast out her evil spirit, according to the belief system of the time. The theory behind the test was that if she sank, she was innocent, although she would also drown.
Sherwood may have been jailed until 1714, when records show she paid back taxes and with the help of then-Gov. Alexander Spotswood she was able to reclaim her property. She then lived quietly until her death at 80.
It should be noted that after her stint in jail, Sherwood never again shrilly yelled at the neighbors or tried to sue anyone. It was nice to see that the Governor back then knew it was a bogus charge and let her get her huge tract of land back.
And honestly, what judge, even in the early 1700′s, would allow such a stupid stunt such as trial by water? Maybe one that wanted to teach a nagging shrewish woman some manners? Grace Sherwood needed a better lawyer.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Herndon’s Patriotic 4th
Jul 5th
Last night we attended the awesome July 4th celebration in downtown Herndon. It was very family oriented, with Moms, Dads and kids all dressed in reds, whites and blues. There was a big field for frisbee and soccer, moon bounces, and funnel cakes, ice cream, and clowns.
The Emcee invited school kids to participate in July 4th trivia, such as signers of the Declaration of Independence and how some of those signers were killed by the British during the war for Independence. There was a beautiful soprano voice that led the crowd in the Star Spangled Banner, and at the conclusion of the song, fireworks commenced, with bombs bursting to Patriotic music.
I will try to post a few pics later on tonight.
There was also a really good cover band that played for about an hour before the fireworks. The Jangling Reinharts played flawless covers of the Stones, Paul McCartney, Creedance Clearwater Revival and many more. They are a Richmond band, but frequently make visits to Northern Virginia. Check out their site here.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...SoundQuilt
Jun 4th
Camping
I hadn’t been camping since I was a teenager, and I faced this challenge with a bit of FUD, but everything went great. I spent the first day mostly setting up camp and trying to stay dry. We had a great setup, which included a nice portable shelter. The first day was a little light on the music, mostly due to intermittent rain and the occasional downpour. But we stayed mostly dry, had plenty to eat, and when there was music, we listened.
The Soundquilt Music Festival
The festival was located at the beautiful Campgrounds of The Cove in the mountains of Gore, Virginia. The festival is the brainchild of Walnut Grove Band’s Mark Stewart, and he rallies some really good bands from around Virginia, Maryland and the DC area. Walnut Grove Band played on Friday night and Saturday afternoon. I have a prior review of their music here, and they were even better at the show that they headlined.
Not all of the bands were to my liking, but I did enjoy all of the music. Below are some notes about some of the music that really stood out to me.
On Saturday was an authentic bluegrass ensemble, the Orchard Boys, which hail from Frederick, MD. They have a great sound, and do an incredible cover of Green Day’s music, except they do it with a banjo and an upright bass.
Family Tree also impressed me. They are a progressive rock band from the Norfolk, VA area, which features an electric violin as an accompanying instrument. They have a rich, mature sound and the music is vibrant and fun.
Laidback is a Reston, VA based band with an expert sound that is marked most vividly by its percussion section. They have the widest range of original music that is a blend of jazz, groove and funk.
Each of the bands, even those not mentioned,helped make for a great and fun weekend, and thanks go out to Mark and Becky for all of their hard work in pulling off a great event.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Virginia RenFest and Mead
May 30th
Virginia has its own renaissance festival located at the Lake Anna Winery. Its on the small side, but for a winery, this festival should be a major attraction. They have several food vendors, lots of games for the children and some nicely priced crafts and clothing.
It was so hot when we went, we skipped the wine tasting, so there is no review on the wines at the Lake Anna Winery.
But I bought a kit for making mead, along with 2 pounds of honey. The term “honeymoon” has been associated with drinking mead during the month long celebration following a wedding in pagan times.
I cooked the stuff up last night, and it takes about a week to complete its fermentation. I’m looking forward to finding out how this goes. I will be sure to update with the results.
The making of the mead seemed pretty simple. I took a gallon of distilled water, brewed a tea made from cinnamon, spice seeds and dried blueberries. I added 2 pounds of honey to the rest of the distilled water, and shook it hard for about 5 minutes until the honey was completely dissolved in the water. Once the tea cooled, I added that to the water jug and then added the yeast. I took a piece of filtering cloth and tied it around the top to allow the gas to escape, and set it in a dark place to ferment for a week. I am supposed to do a sample taste on Thursday or Friday to see if its at the right sweetness/dryness, and when its right, I am supposed to cap it and put it in the fridge.
If it turns out well, this can be a fun distraction for me and I will try to experiment with other recipes.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Museum of the Shenandoah
May 30th
The Museum of the Shenandoah Valley is located in Winchester, VA, and is a new, 20 Million dollar museum which features the sounds, the art and the stories of the people who inhabit the region. The museum is run by a foundation setup by the descendant of the founder of Winchester, James Wood, adjacent to the historical home of Glen Burnie.
The museum features masterpiece miniature doll houses, and a large collection of handmade Virginia Dulcimers. There are also collections of folk art, quilts, handcarved toys and puzzles, and antique furniture.
It was Memorial Day weekend, and experiencing the museum and thinking about the families that tamed the region and imprinted their culture upon America, made me realize how proud I am to be a Virginian. Long before the United States existed, there was a Virginia, and brave families faced Indian raids to transform the lush valley of the Shenandoah into farms and communities. They created their own music, culture, and there are mailboxes on rural routes that have had the same last name on it for over 200 years.
It struck me that it was no surprise, that after only 87 years of the existence of the United States so many Virginians chose to take the side of defending Virginia first over the prospect of the Union. Virginia is beautiful and is a place well worth fighting for. So not only do I remember the fallen soldiers of the United States on Memorial Day, I also keep the fallen soldiers of Virginia in mind.
The Gardens of the Glen Burnie estate was worth the price of admission. There are several different types of gardens, each with its own statuary nestled among the hedges, and each section of the garden had a “folly” which is an outbuilding that can be used for entertaining guests.
The roses were in bloom when we went, and the colors and aromas were beautiful. The Chinese garden featured bamboo, Chinese statuary, babbling streams and flowering ground plants. The water garden featured moss-covered natural stone walls, waterfalls, fountains, and a pool stocked with large golden trout.
If you are in the Winchester area and have two hours, you should make it a point to stop by and experience the museum and the gardens.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Beautiful Woodbridge 9/11 Memorial
May 11th
I live in Northern Virginia, and as such, the terrorist attacks of 9/11 have deeply impacted my life, as well as that of most Northern Virginians. While we didnt lose as many people as New York City, most Northern Virginians work for, or has family that works for, the Federal Government and those people toil away trying to keep the nation safe and prevent the next attack.
Most people who work inside the beltway have to commute from outlying areas. Prince William County lost good people in the Pentagon on that day, and they raised money to build a beautiful memorial to the victims of 9/11 with emphasis on PWC residents that gave their lives in the War on Terror.
From DefenseLink here:
Memorial Honors Virginia Victims of Sept. 11 Attacks
By Sgt. Sara Wood, USA
American Forces Press ServiceWOODBRIDGE, Virginia, May 10, 2006 The people of Prince William County gathered here yesterday to dedicate a memorial that honors the 22 county residents who died in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
It took four years and many donors to fund and build the Liberty Memorial, which sits near the McCoart Administration Building here as a stark reminder of the tragedy of that day. The county is about 20 miles south of the Pentagon and is home to many servicemembers and civilians who work in defense facilities in the area.
The Liberty Memorial consists of a reflecting pool in the shape of the Pentagon with two fountains in the middle to represent the World Trade Center towers in New York City. An adjacent plaza is encircled by Pennsylvania flagstone as a tribute to the people lost on United Flight 93 near Shanksville, Pa., and the names of the Prince William County victims are inscribed on the west wall of the fountain’s pool. A block of stone from the Pentagon fire is incorporated into the design.
The Liberty Memorial is a beautiful tribute to the lives of those killed on Sept. 11, but it also serves as a reminder to their families that the community and the nation are always behind them, Virginia Sen. George Allen said.
“This community will never abandon you, nor will this grand, compassionate nation,” Allen said, addressing the family members at the ceremony. “We should never forget, and we will never forget what happened to you and your loved ones.”
The names inscribed on the memorial are:
Retired Sgt. 1st Class John J. Chada, USA;
SK3 Jamie L. Fallon, USN;
Amelia V. Fields;
Retired Lt. Col. Robert J. Hymel, USAF;
Sgt. Maj. Lacey B. Ivory, USA;
Judith L. Jones;
David W. Laychak;
James T. Lynch Jr.;
Gene E. Maloy;
Robert J. Maxwell;
Molly L. McKenzie;
Craig J. Miller;
Diana B. Padro;
Rhonda S. Rasmussen;
Edward V. Rowenhorst;
Judy Rowlett;
Donald D. Simmons;
Jeff L. Simpson;
Cheryle D. Sincock;
ITC Gregg H. Smallwood, USN;
Sgt. Maj. Larry L. Strickland, USA; and
Sandra L. White.
Thanks to Michelle Malkin for the pointer to this article.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Hampton Block Parties
Apr 16th
Summertime is coming, which means that Block Parties will be back on Saturday Nights, featuring live bands and local vendors in Downtown Hampton. I have family that lives in Hampton and I often travel down on the weekends to visit, and for distractions during those weekends, nothing beats the live music scene of Hampton’s Queen Street. There are often 5 bands and even a few solo acts on the various stages and bars, and thousands of residents come out to mingle, laugh and enjoy the music.
If you are in the Hampton Roads area on a Saturday night, skip Virginia Beach or Norfolk, and go to Downtown Hampton for your entertainment.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Drop Kick a Poodle
Feb 1st
I love a good local scandal. A jogger is accused of animal cruelty because he kicked a tiny yippy dog than was nipping at his heels. The dog’s owner and PETA claims it was dog assault. The man and jogging groups say it was self-defense, and besides, the dog owner was negligent because the dog was unleashed. From the Baltimore Sun here:
Janice Tippett turns her injured tiny toy poodle several times a day because the dog cannot yet move properly on her own. Following a veterinarian’s orders, Tippett stretches the dog’s limbs to keep them limber, administering canine physical therapy.
“I’m hoping to keep her spirit alive,” Tippett, 37, said. “I hope that in time she’ll be able to be walking and wagging her tail.”
The case of a poodle that was kicked and seriously injured by an Anne Arundel County jogger last week has stirred up a debate over when self-defense becomes animal cruelty, attracting the attention of animal rights, jogging and cycling groups.
The Anne Arundel County state’s attorney office is weighing whether to criminally charge a man who Tippett says kicked her 9-year-old poodle “like a football” after it began nipping at him Thursday in Edgewater.
The poodle had momentarily broken free from Tippett, who was loading the dog into her car at 8:30 a.m. Thursday.
Anne Arundel County police spokesman Shawn A. Urbas said the jogger could face a misdemeanor charge of animal cruelty or a felony charge of aggravated animal cruelty. However, Anne Arundel County laws require animals to be “leashed and under the control of a responsible person.”
Animal cruelty is a misdemeanor and carries a maximum penalty of 90 days in jail and or a $1,000 fine. Felony aggravated cruelty to animals carries a maximum penalty of three years in jail and a $5,000 fine.
According to Urbas, the white poodle was kicked two times by the jogger. The 4-pound dog spent 4 1/2 days in veterinary care.
Urbas said the dog ran out of her owner’s garage, chased the jogger and “nipped at his ankles.”
“The jogger tried to shoo it away, the dog persisted at the man’s feet and the jogger kicked it two times,” Urbas said.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent a letter yesterday to the state’s attorney’s office urging that they charge the jogger.
“We will ask for a vigorous prosecution like the world depended on it,” said Martin Mersereau, the manager for the domestic animal abuse department at PETA.
Tippett said the jogger’s kick sent the dog four feet into the air and 10 feet across the street. When the dog landed, she “was obviously in great trauma,” Tippett said.
She drove the dog to the nearby Reichardt Animal Hospital, while her roommate, Margo Owen, administered CPR. The animal was treated at two other clinics and then released Monday.
Tippett said she has spent thousands of dollars on veterinary care.
After the dog was kicked, Tippett said she printed fliers and put them around the neighborhood to locate the jogger. On Saturday afternoon, a man called her cell phone and acknowledged kicking the dog.
“I just screamed, ‘Why did you do it?’ and I threw the phone to my friend,” Tippett said. “I don’t have a desire to talk to him.”
Tippett, meanwhile, is nursing her dog back to health: “My focus is getting my little girl better.”
There are so many things wrong with this story. First of all, the dog is 63 years old in Dog Years. If the animal was suffering so much, why didn’t the owner put it down? Because she is an irresponsible woman who refuses to take responsibility for her own actions. Rather than blame herself, she would rather point the blame elsewhere.
The story says that the poodle “broke free” as if it were some extremely powerful animal. The poodle didnt break free. Tippett neglected to watch her dog.
And PETA, stung by years of ineffectual lawsuits and staffed by girlie men, has to prosecute “like the world depends on it.” Uh. No, the world does not depend on it. PETA should go throw blood on shoppers somewhere like the world depends on it and leave this issue alone.
Finally, NOT THAT THERE IS ANYTHING WRONG WITH IT but this obvious lesbian couple should stop thinking that this dog is their “daughter.” Its not. Its a little yippee dog that is too stupid to live. And the owner is just prolonging its agony.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...DNA Evidence Deals Defeat…
Jan 12th
…To the fawning crowd of anti-death penalty groups. Take THAT Mike Farrell!
From WDBJ here: http://tinyurl.com/84asy
New DNA tests ordered by Governor Mark Warner have confirmed the guilt of Roger Keith Coleman, who was executed in 1992. Coleman went to the electric chair for the rape and murder of his sister-in-law in 1981 maintaining his innocence.A news release from the governor’s office said, “The report from the Centre of Forensic Sciences in Toronto concluded Coleman cannot be excluded as the source of the major DNA profile on the biological evidence.”
“According to the report, ‘The probability that a randomly selected individual unrelated to Roger Coleman would coincidentally share the observed DNA profile is estimated to be 1 in 19 million.’”
We have sought the truth using DNA technology not available at the time the Commonwealth carried out the ultimate criminal sanction, said Governor Warner in a news release. The confirmation that Roger Colemans DNA was present reaffirms the verdict and the sanction. Again, my prayers are with the family of Wanda McCoy at this time, the governor said.
Of course, Mark Warner was really hoping that the evidence would exonerate him so he could use Coleman as a plank in an anti-death penalty platform to make a run for the presidency in 2008.
But Capital punishment opponents and much of the leftist media were convinced of Coleman’s innocence, since, after all, he had an alibi and was declaring his innocence even to the point that he was strapped into Virginia’s electric chair.
Check out an excerpt of WashingtonPost’s article about the ongoing DNA testing on jan 5th:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/05/AR2006010502463_2.html
During Coleman’s trial, authorities said there was compelling evidence of guilt, including hair on McCoy’s body that was similar to Coleman’s and the account of a jailhouse informant. Officials also noted that he had been convicted of attempted rape in 1977.
But Coleman maintained his innocence in a series of television and newspaper interviews that generated attention around the world. Coleman said he had an alibi and would not have had time to commit the killing. Defense attorneys also have gathered affidavits from people who said another man boasted of killing McCoy. Time magazine featured his case in a cover story titled “Must This Man Die?”
The morning of his execution, as L. Douglas Wilder, the governor at the time, debated his fate, Coleman was secretly taken to a police building for a lie-detector test. He failed.
After he was strapped into the electric chair on May 20, 1992, Coleman, then 33, read this statement: “An innocent man is going to be murdered tonight. When my innocence is proven, I hope Americans will realize the injustice of the death penalty as all other civilized countries have.”
Here is the Time Cover:
A leftist author even put out a book about the case, which paints this cold hard killer as a saint. It has been adopted by the anti-death penalty gang as the holy gospel of why crime should never be punished. (This same author also wrote a pamphlet about how mosquito pesticides in Florida might be hurting fish. Of course, malaria kills millions worldwide, but that story is for another post.) This is how the editors of Amazon.Com described the book piously titled May God Have Mercy : A True Story of Crime and Punishment
see: http://tinyurl.com/8phej
On the evening of March 10, 1981, 19-year-old Wanda Fay McCoy, her head nearly severed from her body, bled to death on her bedroom floor. The small-town police who investigated the case quickly narrowed their focus on her brother-in-law, Roger Coleman.
Their suspicions made sense: Wanda had been raped; Roger had once served time for sexual assault. The facts, at least superficially, all pointed to him as the killer.
As the story unravels, though, the case seems less cut-and-dried, and the police’s decision to focus so much of their energies on Coleman seems more and more a travesty. Yet, despite growing evidence of his innocence, Coleman was quickly tried, found guilty, and condemned to die.
The ever-ultra-liberal New York Times took the book and tried to use it to abolish the death penalty altogether. This is what Roger Parloff of the Times said:
…there is no way to insure that a statute will be applied only to the truly guilty, and to favor the death penalty in any case at all means accepting the inevitability that from time to time society will put innocent people to death. John C. Tucker’s May God Have Mercy is a lucid and engrossing exploration of this problem….
Lucid and Engrossing Exploration!? More like wishful thinking in a liberal’s utopian worldview. Roger Coleman’s hot seat on old Sparky in Virginia was only a warmup to the hell he deserves to live in for the rest of eternity. But don’t worry- the leftists of this nation will continue to search for the perfect innocent victim to use to outlaw punishment.
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