In 2007, Edgar Coker, then 15 years old, was
accused of raping a 14-year-old friend. Both are cognitively
impaired. Coker pleaded guilty, because his counsel told
him it was better than risking harsher charges. He was convicted,
added to the Virginia sex offender registry, and sent to juvenile
detention. Seventeen months later, he was granted an early release
because his accuser
admitted to lying about what happened. Nevertheless, Coker
remained branded as a violent sex offender. Following years of
legal battles, a Virginia court on Monday overturned
Coker’s conviction and cleared his name from the registry.
“The order resulted from [Stafford Circuit Court Judge
Jane] Roush’s ruling that court-appointed attorney Denise
Rafferty failed to provide effective assistance of counsel,”
explains The Free Lance-Star. Apparently,
Rafferty did not investigate several key issues, like “the
existence of a tape-recorded interview of the accuser,” “the
accuser’s reputation for truthfulness,” and “the accuser’s ability
to consent to sexual activity.”
Persuading a judge of this Sixth Amendment violation
wasn’t easy. It took six years of litigation with “a team of half a
dozen attorneys, dozens of law students, a pro bono law firm, a
legal aid justice center and two clinics at U-Va. law school,”
according to Matthew Engle, director of the Innocence Project
at the University of Virginia.
The “court order will lift the stigma and formal barriers to
success associated with being on the sex offender registry, but
it’s worth remembering that no delete button can erase the hardship
and humiliation that Edgar and his family have suffered for almost
seven years,” said another
member of the University of Virginia legal team in a press
release.
Coker and his family have suffered regularly from his wrongful
conviction. Opposing Views
details that, “since his conviction, Coker has had trouble
finding good jobs due to the blemish on his record. His family has
had to move several times due to protests from neighbors about
living near a sex offender. After graduating, he was arrested for
attending a football game at his school,” because “sex offenders
are not allowed on school grounds.”
Read more Reason coverage of sex offender
registries here.
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