Kevin Cooper (inmate)

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Kevin Cooper of Nevada, Iowa is a deathrow inmate in California's San Quentin Prison. 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 continue a re-examination of the case. 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.

Kevin Cooper sits on California's Death Row for the most notorious mass murder in San Bernardino County history - the 1983 hatchet and knife massacre 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.

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. ^[1] The testing also establishes that there is strong evidence that Kevin Cooper is the donor of the DNA extracted from the following items of evidence:

1. A bloodstain found inside the Ryens' home;
2. The saliva on a hand rolled cigarette butt found inside the Ryen station wagon;
3. The saliva on a manufactured cigarette butt found inside the Ryen station wagon;
4. 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, Doug Ryen, was the donor of another bloodstain found on the same tee shirt. Cooper is also consistent with being the donor of two additional blood smears and a possible donor of blood spatter on the same tee shirt. ^[2][3]

Since his imprisonment, Mr. Cooper has become active in writing letters from prison against what he considers the racist judicial establishment, for his absolvement, and against the death penalty in general.^[4]

Contents 1 Disputed guilt 2 First hand account of survivor 3 Statement by the Governor of California 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Disputed guilt

Some speculations for his absolvement are:

• Clumps of blonde hair were found in the victims hands (Mr. Cooper has dark hair). This evidence was never presented to the jury that convicted Mr. Cooper.^{[citation needed]}
• The police report shows that multiple weapons were used in the murders indicating that the assailant may have had accomplices, while prosecutors claimed that Mr. Cooper acted alone. No other perpetrators have even been arrested in relation with the murders.^{[citation needed]}
• A pair of overalls, covered in blood, were supposedly presented to police by a woman 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. 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.^{[citation needed]}
• During Mr. Cooper's trial, hostile and racist demonstrations against Mr. Cooper were held outside of the courtroom. This included one instance of a toy gorilla hung in effigy, supposedly representing Mr. Cooper.
• No motive for the murder was ever presented by the prosecution, and Mr. Cooper had no prior connection to the victims. Nothing was taken from the house, so robbery can be ruled out.
• Another prison inmate, Kenneth Koon, confessed to his cellmate, Anthony Wisely, that he had committed the murders, providing accurate details that had not appeared in the newspaper. He has since recanted his confession.
• The only living witness to the murders (besides the assailants) was Josh Ryen, the youngest member of the murdered family. He claimed that three white/Hispanic men killed his family and a friend and that Mr. Cooper was not the man who did it. His statements were passed off by the prosecution as not being credible on the basis that Josh was only 8 at the time and he was in supreme shock. (As an adult, Ryen changed his story and claimed it had been Cooper after all; see his statement below.)^[5]

After the trial, a number of the jurors expressed uncertainty as to whether or not Mr. Cooper was guilty, claiming that the prosecution "had barely enough evidence" to convict.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] First hand account of survivor

Joshua Ryen made the following statement during a hearing in U.S. District Court in San Diego on Friday, 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 8, survived the attack despite having his throat slashed.

The first time I met Kevin Cooper I was 8 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 5 ax blows and 46 stabs. My best friend Chris P. Bacon was stabbed 19 times with a knife and axed 78 times. ^[6]

[edit] Statement 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 eighteen 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."^[7]

[edit] References

1. ^ "New DNA tests fail to exonerate Death Row inmate Kevin Cooper", Associated Press, 6 August 2004. URL last accessed December 26, 2006.
2. ^ "DNA Testing Back in Cooper Case", Attorney General's Office, October 3, 2002. URL last accessed December 26, 2006
3. ^ Brooks, Richard, "DNA tends to confirm murderer", The Press-Enterprise, 4 October 2002. URL last accessed December 26, 2006.
4. ^ Cooper, Kevin, "Why Clemency Is a Joke", The New Abolitionist, February 2006. URL last accessed December 26, 2006.
5. ^ Bybee, Crystal, "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.
6. ^ "Joshua Ryen's court statement in the Kevin Cooper execution case", Daily Bulletin, 23 April 2005. URL last accessed December 26, 2006.
7. ^ Press release, Office of the Governor of California, 30 January 2004. URL last accessed December 26, 2006

[edit] External links

• Save Kevin Cooper
• Full statement from Governor Schwarzenegger regarding clemency for Kevin Cooper.