If the tests, which Democratic Gov. Mark Warner is expected to order before he leaves office in mid-January, clear Roger Coleman, death penalty opponents say it would be the first time in the history of the American death penalty that an executed convict is scientifically shown to be innocent.

“The final argument (of death penalty advocates) is that no innocent person has been executed,” said Richard Dieter, director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington, D.C., group that seeks to end capital punishment. More