Virginia execution getting another look

Richmond, Va. Gov. Mark R. Warner on Thursday ordered DNA evidence retested to determine whether a man convicted of rape and murder was innocent when he was executed in 1992.

If the testing shows Roger Keith Coleman did not rape and kill his sister-in-law in 1981, it will be the first time in the United States a person has been exonerated by scientific testing after his execution, according to death penalty opponents.

Warner said he ordered the tests because of technological advances that could provide a level of forensic certainty not available in the 1980s.

“This is an extraordinarily unique circumstance, where technology has advanced significantly and can be applied in the case of someone who consistently maintained his innocence until execution,” said Warner, a Democrat who leaves office Jan. 14.

Coleman was convicted and sentenced to death in 1982 for the murder of 19-year-old Wanda McCoy, his wife’s sister, who was found raped, stabbed and nearly beheaded in her home in the coal mining town of Grundy.

The case drew international attention as Coleman pleaded his case on talk shows and in magazines and newspapers.

Bush seeking money to teach languages

Washington President Bush said Thursday the United States could help shed its “bullying” image abroad if more Americans learned to speak a foreign language.

Bush said he would request $114 million in the next budget year to help teach U.S. students Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Hindi, Farsi and other languages that are rarely studied.

Bush said the main goal of the National Security Language Initiative is to protect the United States by training soldiers, intelligence officers and diplomats to be proficient in languages other than English.

Down syndrome more prevalent in U.S.

Atlanta Down syndrome in the United States is more common than previously thought, at one case for every 733 live births, according to a new government report containing what are regarded as the most reliable estimates yet on the prevalence of 18 types of birth defects.

Previously, Down syndrome, a type of retardation caused by a genetic mutation, was estimated to occur in a range of one in every 800 live births to one in every 1,000.

The report, released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also found that cleft lip occurs in about one in every 1,000 births, and cleft palate in about one in every 1,500.

Because the new statistics were not collected in the same way as the old, it is not clear whether Down syndrome has really increased.

Commuter train derails in Virginia

Quantico, Va. A commuter train carrying 400 passengers toward Washington derailed during Thursday morning’s rush hour, injuring at least four people and tying up rail travel.

The National Transportation Safety Board was investigating what caused the engine and the last three cars of the Virginia Railway Express train to jump off the tracks just north of Quantico.

Passenger and freight rail service, including Amtrak and CSX routes, were disrupted in both directions.