Convicted murderer Roger Keith Coleman was executed Wednesday, hours after failing a lie detector exam and losing a frenetic final round of appeals.

Two jolts of electricity administered in the electric chair at Greensville Correctional Center killed Coleman, convicted of murdering and raping his sister-in-law 11 years ago.

His attorneys had gone to the U.S. Supreme Court in a final effort to block the execution, scheduled for 11 p.m., and it was delayed briefly as the justices considered the plea. At 10:59, the Supreme Court denied the appeal. The lone dissenters in the 7-2 vote were Justices Harry Blackmun and David Souter. At 11:38 p.m., Coleman was pronounced dead.

James McCloskey, a New Jersey investigator who had worked four years to prove Coleman's innocence, read what he said were Coleman's last words, which he said Coleman wrote down himself around 10 p.m.:

"An innocent man is going to be murdered tonight. When my innocence is proven, I hope Americans will realize the injustice of the death penalty as all other civilized countries have. My last words are to the woman I love. Love is eternal. My love for you will last forever. I love you Sharon."

Coleman, 33, had said goodbye to his girlfriend, Sharon Paul, early in the evening, prison spokesman Wayne Brown said.

McCloskey said he and Coleman's attorney, Kathleen Behan, had spent several hours with Coleman just before the execution. He said they shared a last meal of pepperoni pizza, chocolate marshmallow cookies and 7-Up. "He was in remarkably good humor. He was very genuine," said McCloskey.

Behan reiterated her belief that Coleman was innocent and said the state never gave him a chance to prove it. "The closest he got to a hearing was a state polygraph on the last day as he faced death, under severe stress. That is a great tragedy," she said.

As about two dozen protesters lit candles and sang "We shall overcome" near the prison entrance, Brad McCoy, the victim's husband, stood before TV cameras and said Coleman deserved to die.

"We've put up with so much for so long, especially the last month. All the media seems like it's been one-sided," McCoy said. "He took an innocent life. He deserves to die. He showed Wanda no mercy; he deserves no mercy."

When asked if he doubted Coleman's guilt, McCoy said, "I have no doubt whatsoever."

The polygraph test, authorized by Gov. Douglas Wilder after a request by Coleman's attorneys, was a "last gambit to save his life," said McCloskey.

"This has not in the least bit shaken or disturbed or diminished our complete confidence and faith and belief in Roger Coleman's innocence," McCloskey said.

But to Wilder, who on Monday refused Coleman's plea for clemency, the test results were vindication in the face of an unprecedented campaign to use public pressure to gain clemency for a condemned man.

"This clearly, in my judgment, says our actions [denying clemency] were warranted and justified," Wilder told reporters shortly after noon.

"I wanted to make certain every avenue was opened and made available so as to remove any vestiges that Virginia was not interested in affording fair and adequate opportunities for persons to receive fair trials."

Coleman, a 33-year-old former coal miner from Grundy, was sentenced to die for raping and murdering 19-year-old Wanda Faye McCoy in 1981.

His case for life or death became mired in legal technicalities, genetic tests and alleged evidence - old and new - that courts never formally heard. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals turned down his plea for a stay of execution just before noon Wednesday.

Coleman's own polygraph expert was not permitted to review Wednesday's questions or the results, nor was he allowed to observe as the test was administered, McCloskey said.

But Lisa Katz, a spokeswoman for Wilder, said Coleman's attorneys were permitted, but apparently chose not to attend the session. "We don't know why they didn't come."

Coleman was transported the 70 miles by van from death row to a state police post in Hanover County, where the test was administered about 9:30 a.m.

A state police polygraph examiner administered the test, and several other state police polygraphers concurred with the results, McCloskey and Katz said.

McCloskey told reporters later that Coleman "broke down" during the test but was allowed to regain his composure before continuing.

"Roger was completely devastated. The only thing on his mind was to be with his girlfriend and his loved ones," McCloskey said.

After returning to Greensville, Coleman had a private, contact visit with his girlfriend before being prepared for the execution.

McCloskey said Coleman was so fatigued from lack of sleep and stressed by circumstances that he could not remember any of the questions asked during the exam. He said he and Coleman's attorneys had not expected Coleman to pass the test.

Perhaps as damaging to his case as Wednesday's polygraph were DNA tests on semen samples collected from McCoy's body. By one interpretation, those tests showed Coleman among just 0.2 percent of the population that could have committed the rape.

Coleman's attorneys challenged that conclusion and pointed out that the semen came from two different men. They filed affidavits two weeks ago in federal District Court from two people who alleged that two brothers who lived next door to McCoy were responsible for her death.

Meanwhile, Coleman continued to assert his innocence in recent weeks from the cover of national news magazines and on prime television shows. His final television appearance, on the nationally syndicated Phil Donahue show, prompted a flood of new calls to Wilder's office after its broadcast Wednesday. Taped Tuesday, the show displayed Wilder's office number six times and his facsimile machine number once during the hourlong broadcast.

By Wednesday morning, 4,094 phone calls and 5,200 letters and postcards protesting Coleman's execution had been received by Wilder's office. Only 292 letters and 39 calls favoring Coleman's death had been received, Katz said, almost all of them from the Grundy area.

COLEMAN CASE CHRONOLOGY

March 10, 1981: Wanda Faye McCoy, 18, is found murdered in her home in Grundy. She had been raped and her throat had been slashed.

March 18, 1982: Roger Keith Coleman, McCoy's brother-in-law, is convicted of raping and killing her and sentenced to die. Coleman insists he is innocent but is convicted largely on the strength of forensic evidence and the statement of a cellmate who claims he confessed.

Sept. 9, 1983: Virginia Supreme Court upholds Coleman's conviction.

March 19, 1984: U.S. Supreme Court declines to hear Coleman's appeal.

April 26, 1984: Coleman asks for a new trial in state court, citing ineffective lawyers in his first trial and misconduct by prosecutors in pretrial proceedings and challenging the credibility of the cellmate, Roger Matney.

June 23, 1986: Buchanan Circuit Court refuses new trial. Coleman misses the 30-day deadline for filing his appeal. Virginia Supreme Court and U.S. Supreme Court refuse to hear the appeal.

April 26, 1988: Coleman petitions U.S. District Court to order a new trial, renewing complaints the state court had rejected. In an opinion on Dec. 6, 1988, Judge Glenn Williams rejects the petition. Williams is upheld by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Dec. 20, 1991: Buchanan Circuit Court rejects another new-trial plea, saying it cannot consider claims of newly discovered evidence. The Virginia Supreme Court again refuses to hear his appeal.

Spring 1992: As Coleman's execution approaches, national magazines and network television shows feature his case. Death penalty opponents argue that questions about the case are so compelling that Coleman should at least get a full hearing. They say the courts' refusal to grant one illustrates how far the Supreme Court is now willing to go to see that executions are carried out.

May 12, 1992: Judge Williams rejects another Coleman petition for a new trial, saying that new evidence cited does not prove him innocent and that genetic tests requested by the defense even strengthen the prosecution's case.

May 18: 4th U.S. Circuit Court upholds Williams' decision and Gov. Douglas Wilder announces he will not grant clemency to Coleman.

May 19: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejects request for stay of execution.

May 20: Coleman fails lie-detector test administered at defense attorneys' request.