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New DNA tests in the case of a man executed in Virginia in 1992 show he was, in fact, guilty of the rape and murder of his sister-in-law.

The result was a blow for death-penalty opponents who saw in the case the potential for the nation's first post-execution DNA exoneration.

Roger Coleman, a 33-year-old coal miner whose case landed him on the cover of Time magazine, went to his death in Virginia's electric chair insisting he had been wrongly convicted.

"An innocent man is going to be murdered tonight," Coleman said in a statement just moments before he was put to death. "When my innocence is proven," he added, "I hope America will realize the injustice of the death penalty as all other civilized countries have."

But the DNA tests, ordered last week by outgoing Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, showed that Coleman's semen was found in the body of Wanda McCoy, the 19-year-old sister of Coleman's wife, Warner announced Thursday.

"We have sought the truth," Warner said in a statement, "using DNA technology not available at the time the commonwealth carried out the ultimate criminal sanction. The confirmation that Roger Coleman's DNA was present reaffirms the verdict and the sanction."

The DNA testing culminated a years-long effort by several newspapers and Centurion Ministries, a not-for-profit organization that investigates wrongful convictions, to have the evidence tested.

James McCloskey, who heads Centurion and investigated Coleman's case, said he was "numbed by this new truth that has been revealed" and was "mystified" that Coleman had allowed so many people to believe in his innocence — and work so hard to try to prove it — despite his guilt.

McCloskey concluded after investigating the case and constructing a timeline of the crime and Coleman's actions the day of the murder that he did not have enough time.

"That's the basis on which I primarily believed in his innocence," McCloskey, whose organization has helped to win freedom for three dozen inmates on death row or serving lengthy sentences, said Thursday. "He had to be a ninja to do it.

"But he did it."