Kevin Cooper (inmate)

Kevin Cooper is a Death Row inmate in California's San Quentin Prison. He was convicted of the 1983 hatchet and knife murder of three members of a Chino Hills family and their young houseguest, Christopher Hughes. Cooper, a repeat criminal who escaped from a nearby prison two days before the killings, claims he is innocent and that sheriff's investigators framed him for crimes committed by three white men.

He was scheduled to be executed on February 10, 2004, but his execution was postponed only hours before it was to take place in order to allow for DNA testing. This rare postponement followed an activist campaign led by various groups in the Bay Area and around the country, such as the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, the ACLU, Death Penalty Focus, and The Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal.

In 2001, Cooper became the first death row inmate in California to get post-conviction DNA testing of evidence. The results of those DNA tests failed to exonerate him of the 1983 murders and indicated that hairs found on three of the victims were likely their own, which undermines Cooper's theory that other people committed the murder. ["New DNA tests fail to exonerate Death Row inmate Kevin Cooper", Associated Press, 6 August 2004.] The testing also establishes that there is strong evidence that Cooper is the donor ofthe DNA extracted from the following items of evidence:
#A bloodstain found inside the Ryens' home;
#The saliva on a hand rolled cigarette butt found inside the Ryen station wagon;
#The saliva on a manufactured cigarette butt found inside the Ryen station wagon;
#A bloodstain located on a tee shirt that was found beside a road some distance from the Ryen home.There is strong evidence that one of the victims, DougRyen, was the donor of another bloodstain found on the same tee shirt. Cooperis also consistent with being the donor of two additional blood smears and apossible donor of blood spatter on the same tee shirt. [" [http://www.co.san-bernardino.ca.us/dapressreleases/common_documents/Cooper.pdf DNA Testing Back in Cooper Case] ", Attorney General's Office, October 3, 2002. URL last accessed December 26 2006] [Brooks, Richard, " [http://www.press-enterprise.com/newsarchive/2002/10/04/1033707438.html DNA tends to confirm murderer] ", The Press-Enterprise, 4 October, 2002. URL last accessed December 26 2006.]

Since his imprisonment, Cooper has become active in writing letters from prison decrying the judicial establishment as racist, for his absolvement, and against the death penalty in general. [Cooper, Kevin, " [http://nodeathpenalty.org/content/new_abolitionist.php?issue_id=1&story_id=9 Why Clemency Is a Joke] ", "The New Abolitionist", February 2006. URL last accessed December 26, 2006.]

Cooper has filed multiple appeals and applications for a writ of habeas corpus. To date, all have been denied. On December 4, 2007, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied Cooper's third federal petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The ninth circuit panel concluded: "As the district court, and all state courts, have repeatedly found, evidence of Cooper’s guilt was overwhelming. The tests that he asked for to show his innocence “once andfor all” show nothing of the sort."

Disputed guilt

Some speculations for his absolvement are:

* The police report shows that multiple weapons were used in the murders indicating that the assailant may have had accomplices, while prosecutors claimed that Cooper acted alone. No other perpetrators have ever been arrested in relation with the murders.Fact|date=March 2007
* A pair of overalls, covered in blood, were supposedly presented to police by a woman, Diane Roper, who claimed that they were her boyfriend's and that he had a connection to the murder. The overalls were destroyed by police before the trial without comprehensive DNA testing (which didn't exist at the time of the murders). The woman also claimed that her boyfriend had been wearing a beige t-shirt on the night of the murder. A beige t-shirt was found at the scene of the crime.Fact|date=March 2007 Roper stated that she learned this information through a vision during a trance, and she had no other reason to suspect her boyfriend. [" [http://www.cjlf.org/deathpenalty/CooperReview.htm California Has Wasted Enough Time on Kevin Cooper] ", "Criminal Justice Law Project", March 2004. URL last accessed July 18, 2007.]
* During Cooper's trial, demonstrations against him were held outside of the courthouse. This included one instance of a toy gorilla hung in effigy, supposedly representing Cooper.
* Another prison inmate, Kenneth Koon, confessed to his cellmate, Anthony Wisely, that he had committed the murders. He has since recanted his confession.
* The only living witness to the murders (besides the assailant or assailants) was Josh Ryen, the youngest member of the murdered family. During questioning by the police, he stated that three Hispanic men had come to his house earlier that day, although he did not know whether they were the attackers. [" [http://www.cjlf.org/deathpenalty/CooperReview.htm California Has Wasted Enough Time on Kevin Cooper] ", "Criminal Justice Law Project", March 2004. URL last accessed July 18, 2007.] His statements were passed off by the prosecution as not being credible on the basis that he was only eight at the time and he was in shock. (As an adult, Ryen claimed it had been Cooper after all; see his statement below.) [Bybee, Crystal, " [http://www.nodeathpenalty.org/newab031/index.html We can stop the death penalty: The story of the struggle that saved Kevin Cooper] ", The New Abolitionist, March 2004. URL last accessed December 26 2006.]

* After the trial, a number of the jurors expressed uncertainty as to whether or not Cooper was guilty, claiming that the prosecution "had barely enough evidence" to convict. Fact|date=February 2007

First hand account of survivor

Joshua Ryen made the following statement during a hearing in U.S. District Court in San Diego on April 22, 2005. Ryen is the sole survivor of the 1983 hatchet massacre in Chino Hills in which his parents, sister and friend were killed. Ryen, then eight years old, survived the attack despite having his throat slashed.

The first time I met Kevin Cooper I was eight years old and he slit my throat. He hit me with a hatchet and put a hole in my skull. He stabbed me twice, which broke my ribs and collapsed one lung. I lived only because I stuck four fingers in my neck to slow the bleeding, but I was too weak to move. I laid there 11 hours looking at my mother who was right beside me.

I know now he came through the sliding glass door and attacked my dad first. He was lying on the bed and was struck in the dark without warning with the hatchet and knife. He was hit many times because there is a lot of blood on the wall on his side of the bed.

My mother screamed and Cooper came around the bed and started hitting her. Somehow my dad was able to struggle between the bed and the closet but Cooper bludgeoned my father to death with the knife and hatchet, stabbing him 26 times and axing him 11. One of the blows severed his finger and it landed in the closet. My mother tried to get away but he caught her at the bottom of the bed and he stabbed her 25 times and axed her 7.

All of us kids were drawn to the room by mom's screams. Jessica was killed in the doorway with five ax blows and 46 stabs. I won't say how many times my best friend Chris was stabbed and axed, not because it isn't important, but because I don't want to hurt his family in any way, and they are here. [" [http://lang.dailybulletin.com/projects/cooperwatch/news/042305_joshua_statement.asp Joshua Ryen's court statement in the Kevin Cooper execution case] ", Daily Bulletin, 23 April 2005. URL last accessed December 26, 2006.]

tatement by the Governor of California

On January 30, 2004, the office of Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger issued the following statement regarding his decision not to grant clemency to Kevin Cooper:

: "I have carefully weighed the claims presented in Kevin Cooper's plea for clemency. The state and federal courts have reviewed this case for more than 18 years. Evidence establishing his guilt is overwhelming, and his conversion to faith and his mentoring of others, while commendable, do not diminish the cruelty and destruction he has inflicted on so many. His is not a case for clemency." [ [http://governor.ca.gov/state/govsite/gov_htmldisplay.jsp?sFilePath=/govsite/press_release/2004_01/20040130_GAAS4104_Clemency_Denied_Kevin_Cooper.html&sCatTitle=Press%20Release Press release] , Office of the Governor of California, 30 January 2004. URL last accessed December 26 2006]

References

External links

* [http://www.savekevincooper.org/index.html Save Kevin Cooper]
* [http://lang.dailybulletin.com/projects/cooperwatch Cooper Watch]
* [http://governor.ca.gov/state/govsite/gov_htmldisplay.jsp?sFilePath=/govsite/press_release/2004_01/20040130_GAAS4104_Clemency_Denied_Kevin_Cooper.html&sCatTitle=Press%20Release Full statement] from Governor Schwarzenegger regarding clemency for Kevin Cooper.