Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Yes, this book is excellent journalism, well written, and a haunting look at life on Death Row and the "death industry" of lawyers, appeals, prisons, and so on. However, I do have one serious problem with Tucker's narrative: Why, at no point, was he even willing to consider the possibility that Coleman might have been guilty? While the evidence didn't damn Coleman, it certainly didn't exclude him either. By Tucker's own account, Coleman refused to take a blood test that could have exonerated him for quite awhile (he apparently feared that authorities would "frame" him); once performed, the test could not rule Coleman out; and he did not take a lie-detector test until the day of his execution, which he failed. Tucker also shrugs off Coleman's earlier conviction on a sex crime as a case of mistaken identity. but offers no real proof.

In his attempt to portray Coleman innocent, Tucker missed the opportunity to create a truly balanced portrait of crime and punishment in America. Much better is "Dead Run," the story of Dennis Stockton and the mass Death Row escape.

http://crime.about.com/b/a/235131.htm

DNA Tests Confirms Roger Coleman's Guilt

Even though this book is nicely written, easy to follow, and quite intriguing, it has now been proven both out of date and wrong. The man accussed of murder, Roger Coleman, was conclusively proven guilty just recently, using DNA tests, which did not exist back when the murder happened, nor when this book was written. Unfortunately the author clearly thinks that Coleman is innocent, because the evidence appeared weak. So you will probably only enjoy this book if you are interested in a case where a man was executed on what looked like weak evidence.

Now that as of 1/12/06, DNA evidence has conclusively proven that the hero of this book was a rapist and a killer who nearly beheaded his teenage victim, how can this author show his face in public? I feel sorry for people who bought this book, and also for the people who reviewed it and said it "nearly conclusively" proves his innocence. Oops! Turns out he was a killer. It would be hilarious if a woman were not still dead thanks to the hero of this disgraceful book.

John Tucker brought up some good points about the weaknesses in the case against Roger Coleman, but that does not take away from the fact that it was painfully obvious at the time that he was executed in 1992 that Coleman was guilty of killing Wanda McCoy, the conclusive DNA test in January 2006 showing Coleman's guilt notwithstanding. Tucker, like most lawyers tend to do, lost sight of the kind of person he was dealing with and instead focused on "selling the product," which was the notion that Coleman might be innocent.

The evidence at the McCoy house tied Coleman to the crime scene. The more evidence that Coleman's lawyers received that Coleman was guilty, the more they tried to pin the killing on someone else. They did not want to understand Coleman as a person. Before the McCoy killing, Coleman was just another cowardly, would-be rapist. However, Coleman learned his lesson in April of 1977 when he used subterfuge to gain entrance to Brenda Rife's house, got Brenda to tape her young daughter to a chair, and then unsucessfully attempted to rape Brenda. He had to flee because he could not control the situation. He was later found guilty by a jury and sentenced to three years in prison. He was paroled after spending 20 months and one day in prison. Even so, with all that time in prison, he was able to think about how to become a better rapist and hit on a valuable lesson in his criminal evolution: during the next sexual assault, he wasn't going to leave any witnesses lest he spend even more time in prison. That is why he killed Wanda McCoy in a violent attack in March of 1981.

The evidence was not, as Jennifer Lunsford claims in her December 7, 2007 review, grossly inadequate to convict Coleman. The only question seemed to be whether Coleman acted alone or with somebody else. Jennifer Lunsford says "the evidence was purely circumstantial," as if that is supposed to mean something, but the evidence in most death penalty cases is circumstantial. She also says that there were plausible explanations for even the most damning evidence, but Coleman's statement upon finding that the DNA in the case was going to be tested, that he had sex with a prison guard and was afraid that she had taken the result and placed it on the evidence to frame him, smacks of pure paranoia and should have sent up several red flags.

In any event, despite Tucker's lack of insight into Coleman as a person, this book is still worth reading to get one attorney's take on how this case might have been approached differently.

I first read "May God have mercy" 4 yrs back, and despite having no position on the death penalty, found it a compelling and harrowing read.

At that point I thought that Coleman was probably guilty and yet I believed that his guilt was not proved beyond a reasonable doubt in the original trial. However, midway through the book, the first DNA test provided very strong evidence of Coleman's guilt. I also found it hard to believe that Coleman was this baby faced innocent and was just unfortunate to be wrongly accused 3 times of sex crimes (the original rape, the incident in the library, and the murder/rape).

Clearly Coleman was a heavily manipulative guy who was able to take in a number of people, including the author. Yet, they should all have realized after the original DNA test that the evidence was now very strong. The counterclaims sometimes were not just "she said he said" but more like "he said that she said that he said that he had killed Wanda McCoy).

Some of the slightly puzzling points in the original trial -- the man who alibi'd Coleman remain puzzling (although the author didn't comment on how reliable that witness was), as well as some of the other evidence relating to entry.

James McCloskey's recent statement about accepting the truth and his personal anguish about having been deceived is notable. Its a shame that this decent and honorable man was fooled by a murderous rapist into wasting his time and energy. He is a victim of Coleman as much as anyone else.

Despite the author's bias, I still give the book 3 stars. May God have mercy -- on poor Wanda McCoy.

When I first read this book back in 2000, I was persuaded and moved. Re-reading the work in its entirety, knowing that Coleman was guilty, is still an eye-opener. . . but this time in Tucker's errors of reasoning. The story is so well-crafted that we didn't notice, or chose to ignore, the signs that we were being led astray. Count me among the suckers, but now one can see Tucker's classic intellectual sins that accompany any time a political agenda clouds one's judgement of facts. First, denigrate or ignore the contrary evidence. Second, obsess on the supportive evidence, even if it's less reliable and relevant than the contrary evidence. Third, editorialize about the motives and competence of prosecutors, investigators, judges, and anyone else who disagrees. And so on reflection, notwithstanding Tucker's flair for storytelling, this is just another bad book.

John Tucker does a excellent job in presenting a balanced approach to an unbalanced trial. This was an engrossing tale of the darker side of our judicial system. Regardless who committed the murder, Roger Coleman did not receive a fair and just trial. While we will never know the truth, it seems that many miscarriages of justice occurred throughout this long process and there are many who will atone for Roger's death--the judge, the defense team, the prosecutors, the Governor and his staff, the Appeals Courts, the police and investigators, and the Almighty Supreme Court. The one aspect of the murder that was never discussed was the motive for the crime, assuming Roger was the murderer? Well written and worth the read.

It is hard for me to imagine anyone reading John C. Tucker's "May God Have Mercy" without being profoundly affected by the topic, which is the trial and execution of Roger Coleman for the brutal rape and murder of Wanda McCoy. While a book dealing mostly with the appeals process could be dull and confusing, Tucker does an astonishing job of presenting complex legal concepts and rules in clear, simple language. In so doing, Tucker allows the personal stories of Coleman and those in his life to take center stage, and those stories are powerful and moving.

One of the more common defenses of the death penalty is that the entire system is set up to cater to the defendants and that it's almost impossible for an innocent person to slip through the cracks. Sure, the cacophony of "I'm innocent" on death row might be overwhelming, but there's an obvious lack of credibility there. But the case of Roger Coleman stands as an exception. It's not that Tucker proves beyond a reasonable doubt that Coleman was innocent (nor should he have to). But there is substantial evidence to suggest that Coleman was innocent, from the prosecution's almost-impossible theory to the identification of a thoroughly plausible suspect.

Tucker takes the reader through the entire case, from the initial investigation to the final, tragic resolution. In the process, we meet attorney Kitty Behan, who handled most of Coleman's appeals. Behan worked tremendous hours at a thankless job that she had to know was an uphill battle. Her biggest task was to get a court actually to listen to the evidence suggesting her client's innocence. Before she assumed the case, one of her predecessors had filed a paper a single day late (and even that was debatable). The rest of the case seemed to be a battle to convince reluctant courts that an innocent man's life was more important than a postmark. Though Tucker exhibits restraint in describing the case, the picture of Behan that emerges is one of a true hero, an attorney whose work should be appreciated even by those in favor of speedier executions. At the expense of her own health, she did everything she could for her client, and she did so not only competently (an understatement) but ethically.

In the end, though, the story is Coleman's, and it is a painful story to read--but an eminently important one. Maybe Coleman was guilty, and maybe he was innocent. (The facts seem all but conclusive that he was innocent.) But if the ultimate crime deserves the ultimate punishment, surely the evidence raised that indicated his innocence should have been heard. Even the most ardent proponent of capital punishment should be uncomfortable reading about the case of Roger Coleman.

Finally, while the story is harrowing, special kudos is due the author. The labyrinth of state and federal appeals is confusing, but Tucker takes the reader through that maze easily, almost making the appeals process seem clear. Tucker's style is easy to read, and he allows the personal stories to come through the legal wrangling. In short, "May God Have Mercy" is important, well-written, and emotionally powerful.

I loved this book, and found it to be a compelling account of the execution of a probably innocent man. Unfortunately, today (1/12/06) DNA tests conclusively demonstrated that Coleman was, in fact, guilty as charged. It's still a beautiful book (if a book about the death penalty can be considered beautiful), but probably not worth reading now that the central premise has been disproved.