Dear Governor Schwarzenegger:

We call upon you to stop the execution of Kevin Cooper.

Nationwide, prosecutors have had the wrong man in 112 capital
murder cases, forcing innocent men and women to spend years on
death row facing execution for crimes they did not commit. On
February 10, the state of California plans to execute Kevin
Cooper, a 45-year-old African American man who has been on
death row for 20 years. We ask you to stay Kevin Cooper's
execution so that a thorough investigation can be conducted to
answer questions about the evidence against him-especially about
evidence that was never heard by the jury.

• On June 4, 1983, Peggy, Doug and Jessica Ryen and a houseguest
were brutally murdered in San Bernardino County. The youngest
member of the family, Josh Ryen, 8, managed to survive. When
local police learned that Kevin Cooper had walked off the grounds
of a minimum security prison just days before the murders, Cooper
became the primary suspect - despite the fact that Josh Ryen told
police and his grandmother that the killers were three white or
Latino men and despite the fact that at least one confession by an
individual unconnected to Kevin Cooper supports this statement.

• The State of California conducted DNA tests on Cooper, but
the integrity of this evidence is highly questionable. Blood and
saliva samples taken at the time of his arrest were released to a
technician involved in the prosecution, and held for twenty-four
hours without a court order or the knowledge of Cooper's legal
team.

• Clumps of long, blond hair were found in the hands of one
of the victims. Photographs of this hair, which clearly does
not belong to Cooper, were never shown to the jury. The
prosecution has refused to allow testing that could determine
just whose hair it is.

• Bloody coveralls submitted to the police by a woman claiming
that they had been left at her house by her boyfriend around the
time of the murders were tossed in a dumpster without any testing.
The woman was never brought in to testify.

A study published by the Santa Clara Law Review in December 2003
exposes over 80 problems in California's death penalty system,
declaring it "seriously flawed and dangerously unjust." We ask you
to review the facts of this case and decide for yourself whether
Kevin's guilt has been established "beyond a reasonable doubt."
There are serious questions about Kevin Cooper's case and
California's flawed death penalty system which need to be
addressed before the state kills another prisoner. If you agree,
please take action now.

Call, fax or email Governor Schwarzenegger.

GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER
Phone number: 916-445-2841
Fax number: 916-445-4633
E-mail address: governor@governor.ca.gov


We, the undersigned, believe there are critical questions to be
answered before the State of California executes Kevin Cooper,
especially about the evidence that was never heard by the jury.
We call upon you to stop the execution of Kevin Cooper.

Harry Belafonte
Rubin "Hurricane" Carter
James Cromwell
Ted Danson
Richard Dreyfuss
Shelley Fabares
Mike Farrell
Janeane Garofalo
Danny Glover
Anjelica Houston
Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.
Mary Steenburgen
Jahahara Amen-RA Alkebulan-Ma'at, American Friends Service
Committee
Barbara Becnel, co-author of the "Tookie Speaks Out Against Gang
Violence" series
Stephen Bright, Southern Center for Human Rights
Peter Camejo, Green Party of California
Noam Chomsky, author
Angela Davis, author
Lanny J. Davis, Esq., Fmr. Special Counsel to Pres. Bill Clinton
Hari Dillon, President, Vanguard Foundation
Riva Enteen, National Lawyers Guild
Robert Greenwald, Producer/Director
Ron Hampton, National Black Police Association
Van Jones, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
Mesha Monge-Irizarry, Founder, Idriss
Stelley Foundation
Derrel Myers, founder, JoJo White Youth
Fund and member of Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation
Mary Ratcliff, Editor, San Francisco Bay View
Franklin E. Zimring, Boalt Hall School of Law
Howard Zinn, author
Rabbi Leonard Beerman, Rabbi Emeritus,
Leo Baeck Temple
Bishop H.H. Brookins, African Methodist
Episcopal Church
Father Gregory Boyle, S.J.
Bishop Clarence Carr, African Methodist
Episcopal Zion Church
Rev. James Lawson Jr., President, Southern
Christian Leadership Conference
Rev. Robert A. Matthews, United Church of
Christ, Oakland
Rev. Tony Pierce, African Methodist
Episcopal Zion Church
Sister Helen Prejean, Author, Dead Man Walking
Pastor Chuck Singleton, Loveland Church
Rev. Larry Turpin, Presbyterian United
Church of Hyde Park, Chicago
Dr. Melvin V. Wade, Sr., Mt. Moriah Baptist Chruch
Bishop Henry M. Williamson Sr., Presiding
Prelate 9th District, CME Church
Bishop Gabino Zavala, San Gabriel Region,
LA Archdiocese, Roman Catholic Church
Fmr. Gov. George H. Ryan, Illinois
John Burton, Senate President Pro-Tem, 3rd District
Gilbert Cedillo, Senator 22nd District
Gloria Romero, Senator 24th District
Byron Sher, Senator, 11th District
John Vaconcellos, Senator, 13th District
Mervin Dymally, Assemblman 52nd District
Jackie Goldberg, Assemblywoman 45th District
Loni Hancock, Assemblywoman 14th District
Paul Koretz, Asseblyman 42nd District
Mark Leno, Assemblyman 13th District
Sally Lieber, Assemblywoman 22nd District
Mark Ridley-Thomas, Assemblyman 48th District
Salima Marriott, Delegate, Maryland State Assembly
John J. Duran, Mayor Pro Tempore, City of West Hollywood
Sophie Maxwell, SF Board of Supervisors
Nancy Nadel, Oakland City Council
John Heilman, West Hollywood City Council
Abbe Land, West Hollywood City Council
Antonio Villaraigosa, Los Angeles City Council
Rabbi Allen I. Freehling, Executive Director,
Los Angeles Human Relations Commission
Salima Marriott, Delegate, Maryland State Assembly
Armonie Bordes, Member of European
Parliament, France
Yasmine Boudjenah, MEP, France
Chantal Cauquil, MEP, France
Alain Krivine, MEP, France
Arlette Laguiller, MEP, France
Didier-Claude Rod, MEP, France
Roseline Vachetta, MEP, France
Erik Meijer, MEP, The Netherlands
Feleknas Uca, MEP, Germany
ILWU Local 10
Tyrone Freeman, President, SEIU Local 434B
Walter Johnson, Sec-Treas., San Francisco Central Labor Council
Michael Letwin, Fmr. President, Association of Legal Aid
Attorneys/UAW Local 2325
Bob Mandel, Executive Board, Oakland Education Association
Jonathan Meade, Paramedic Chapter
President, SEIU 790, San Francisco Fire
Department
Howard Wallace, Pride At Work, AFL-CIO
Amnesty International U.S.A.
American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California
American Civil Liberties Union of
Sourthern California
American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego
California Prison Focus
Campaign to End the Death Penalty
California People of Faith Working Against
the Death Penalty
Critical Resistance
Death Penalty Focus
Friends Committee on Legislation Global Exchange
International Action Center
International Socialist Organization
Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
Rainbow/PUSH Coalition
And over 1,000 other people, churches, unions and community
organizations opposed to the Execution of Kevin Cooper

www.savekevincooper.org

Call, fax or email Governor Schwarzenegger.

GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER
Phone number: 916-445-2841
Fax number: 916-445-4633
E-mail address: governor@governor.ca.gov

"Rubin "Hurricane" Carter "

Another irrefutable murderer who's been "exonorated" by Hollywood.

How about we staple Carter, Cooper and "mumia" together and then juice 'em all.

How about we staple fetid, I mean fresh, to bush or ahhnold's ass since those seem to be
the source of his thinking..

In both the Mumia and Cooper cases, the real culprits have stepped up to proclaim their
guilt and the defendant's innocence, but this doesn't seem to register with racist shitheads
like fetid.

Carter was obviously innocent....as for Cooper, why not DNA test the blond hairs? Would some other shitpile like to tackle that one? Our resident shitpile should move over to some Israel thread and spew there....

Geez, what's with Republican? It has no concept of justice....as long as somebody dies, Republican is happy, doesn't even matter if it is the wrong guy.

Old news, kids.

http://caag.state.ca.us/newsalerts/2002/02-115.htm

Just because you want someone to be innocent doesn't make them so.

Attorney General Bill Lockyer Submits Final DNA Testing Results with Court in Kevin Cooper Case
Death Row Inmate Was First in State to Request DNA Tests Under State Innocence Act

October 3, 2002
02-115
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(916) 324-5500

(SAN BERNARDINO) – Attorney General Bill Lockyer today announced that the latest DNA testing results involving death row inmate Kevin Cooper provide strong evidence of Cooper's guilt in the 1983 quadruple homicide. The DNA test results were filed today with the San Diego Superior Court.

In 1985, Kevin Cooper was sentenced to death for the quadruple murder of Doug and Peggy Ryen, their 10-year-old daughter Jessica, and an 11-year-old houseguest Chris Hughes in the Ryen's home in San Bernardino County. Cooper was also convicted of attempting to murder the Ryen's son, eight-year-old Joshua. The San Bernardino District Attorney alleged that Cooper killed his victims by repeatedly stabbing and hacking them with a hatchet and buck knife. During the trial, Cooper testified that he had never been inside the Ryen's home and that he did not commit the crimes. Cooper has continued to maintain his innocence over the last 19 years.

In 2000, a new state law, supported by the Attorney General, took effect which gives convicted felons the right to obtain DNA testing in order to support their claim of innocence. Cooper is the state's first death row inmate to request DNA testing under the law.

Pursuant to an agreement between the Attorney General, the District Attorney of San Bernardino and Cooper's attorneys, DNA testing was conducted by the state Department of Justice's DNA Laboratory on several pieces of evidence from the 1983 crime.

The DNA testing was conducted in two phases. The first phase required the DOJ Laboratory to develop a genetic profile for each of several pieces of crime scene evidence. The tested evidence includes: a drop of blood found in the hallway of the Ryen's home just outside the bedroom where Doug and Peggy were murdered and near the location where the body of Jessica was found, two cigarette butts found in the Ryen's station wagon that was believed to be the killer's getaway vehicle, and a bloodstained t-shirt found in the vicinity of a local bar near the Ryen's home. The results of this phase of testing established that a single perpetrator was linked to all of the pieces of crime scene evidence from which DNA results were obtained.

The second phase of DNA testing required the development of a genetic profile from a sample of blood provided by Kevin Cooper himself. The results of this testing established a match between Kevin Cooper's DNA and that found on the evidence from the murder scene. In scientific terms, the match between Cooper's DNA and that from the blood found in the hallway of the Ryen's home is estimated to occur at random in the population with a frequency of approximately 1 in 310 billion for African Americans. Because the current world population is 6.2 billion persons, it is statistically unlikely that another individual will have the same genetic profile as Cooper.

"DNA evidence is being used every day in California to provide justice by helping to convict the guilty and free the wrongly accused," Lockyer said. "The purpose of the state's innocence law is to give prosecutors and convicted felons the opportunity to use previously unavailable DNA evidence to determine guilt and innocence. In the case of Kevin Cooper, though it certainly wasn't the result he sought, the law worked."

The next status conference hearing in San Diego Superior Court is scheduled to take place on October 22, 2002. A copy of the DNA testing reports will also be forwarded to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals which is currently reviewing a habeas corpus petition filed by Cooper in which he similarly claims innocence.

Ask for a shitpile and you get one....simple!

Actually, this report is not about testing of the blond hair, but for blood.

But this shitpile knows it...he is falling back on a faithfull Republican tactic to be used when fact become inconvinient...

...lie!

Does any OTHER shitpile want to try explain why the hair should not be tested?

I think African Americans may have a different perspective on the death penalty than Whites. This particular person may or may not be guilty, but there are facts external to this case that should be considered.

First, whites are less likely to get caught for crimes, convicted, and sentenced to death than black and brown people.

Second, there are a lot of innocent people on death row.

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?did=412&scid=6

All reports of innocence and freedom get news coverage, but these stories are going to have more impact in the Black community, because there are disproportionate numbers of Blacks on death row.

This is the nature of being a minority group. Any biases for or against the group have a greater impact within the group, than outside in the larger population. The perceptions about the effects of bias are greater within the group than outside it.

Also, biases that benefit one group and harm another tend to be noticed only by the victims, not the benefactors. People of color sense racism, and whites barely notice. Women feel sexism, and men barely notice. The poor feel deprivation, while the rich don't even realize people are poor. Any time there's a bias like this, the ones who come out ahead don't realize how good they have it: the smart, the attractive, the athletic, the strong, the articulate... all don't think about life without their skills or assets.

So, minorities will see the death penalty, which is provably unfair and biased by race and income, as a big issue and a problem, while whites won't think it's a big deal.

To have justice, the people need to develop an empathy and understanding for the people who aren't the winners.

Just for you, KPC, I'll repost the best part of the article above:

In scientific terms, the match between Cooper's DNA and that from the blood found in the hallway of the Ryen's home is estimated to occur at random in the population with a frequency of approximately 1 in 310 billion for African Americans.

1 in 310 Billion.
BILLION you retard.
BILLION.

The typical deal penalty case isn't this one.

According to the linked page, 112 people have been exonerated from death row since 1973.

I don't know how many people have been killed since 1973, but, I think when it comes to the state taking life, I could personally tolerate an error rate of around 0.01%. If 112,000 people have been executed, I can live with 112 innnocent people being killed.

I don't think 100k-plus people have been sent to death row.

I don't think the people would tolerate that many people being convicted and killed by any authority. It starts to feel like genocide.

The actual number of executions is 895 since 1979. There are around 3,500 people on death row.

I'd guesstimate that around 3% of the people lining up to die are innocent. That's way to high for me.

There hasn't been a SINGLE case of ANYONE being executed in this country and then being proven innocent after the fact. And it's not for a lack of trying. The very fact that 112 have been spared death proves the system works.

Kevin cooper is a case of someone who is utterly irrefutably guilty. The evidence is simply overwhelming and ALL of the points his supporters use to claim his innocence are easily refuted.

Cooper and "mumia" should be executed SLOWLY as soon as possible.

With this latest travesty by the 9th circuit, one can only hope that Cooper contracts some slow very painful and debilitating disease.

I'm so sick of working even a single day each year to generate the tax money it takes to keep these animals alive.

"Carter was obviously innocent....as for Cooper, why not DNA test the blond hairs?"

That's rich...sure Carter was innoncent...just keep repeating that and maybe his victims will come back to life.

There's no question as to his guilt.

As for the blond hairs...are you really that ill informed that you are actually asking that.

Perhaps you'd care to read the transcripts (which you won't). The plea from your inane side is that the hand was "clutching the hair". NO WHERE is there any mention of clutching.

The murdered girl had blond hair sticking to her bloody hand as she fell and her hand hit the floor. The house, on a horse farm, no less, had floors covered with hair. Including the blond hair of several family members.

Your hero cooper is a fucking scumbag and you know it.

You only defend him because it kills you to agree with the "republicans" you are so sure are behind all this.

Your intellect is that of a teenage girl.

What a fucking idiot.

It's kind of pointless to exonerate someone after they die. Investigations would not turn up much evidence.

People will take their secrets to the grave. Why help out a dead guy's memory by putting your own ass at risk?

Seriously.

That argument that the freed people show the system is working is just not true. The people fighting these cases are not all part of "the system." They are external pressure groups criticizing the system.

The system is flawed, and to an unacceptable degree to any freedom-loving civil libertarian. Every 30th person might be innocent. Bureaucratic systems of killing, with proven race and class biases are the antithesis of a humane democracy.

(BTW, did you all know that Karl Marx was pro-gun?)

wow, that's ill.

"It's kind of pointless to exonerate someone after they die. Investigations would not turn up much evidence.

People will take their secrets to the grave. Why help out a dead guy's memory by putting your own ass at risk?
"

People have tried to prove the innocence and clear the name of many people executed. It happens all the time.

But it's never come to fruition.

"Cooper and "mumia" should be executed SLOWLY as soon as possible."

reading you fresca, is like observing a praying mantis through the glass. You should know that it would be best for you to seek help for your tortured mind. I can only wonder what kind of twisted circumstances warped you so tight. I think I'll just regard you as a sick person. Without merit or credibility deserving of sympathy if only you weren't so violent. You come across as a blood thirsty sadist to me. Very creepy.

shitpile, you are so fucked up it is funny..

..Carter is innocent..proven by a court of law...set FREE. You are wrong...nothin' new there. Must really bug you when a black man sees justice.

...blond hair..yeah...blah blah blah...TEST 'EM. Very easy. Don't waste your fecal breath any more.

shitpile, I don't know WHAT the fuck you are spittling about "hero" or "scumbag" or "republican" or "teenage girl" (hmmm, any Freudians wanna take THAT one on?) or any other shit flying from your hole. Kill as many innocent men as you want, maybe the victims will come back to life.

Now....as for Fido..."hair" is on your head...."blood" is in your veins....your "elbow" is the joint half way up your arm....your "ass" is that hole you've got your head shoved in.

Hair....HAIR....H-A-I-R....
Blood...BLOOD...B-L-O-O-D...
Elbow...ELBOW...E-L-B-O-W...
Ass....ASS...F-I-D-O

Got it all sussed now? Glad I could help.

"...blond hair..yeah...blah blah blah...TEST 'EM. Very easy."

It's so amazing that losers like yourself get so worked up about trying to save the life of a fucking hatchet murderering animal, yet never say a word about his victims or their families.

This piece of shit Cooper has been convicted over a MOUNTAIN of evidence. So you want to test the blond hair. Just another stall tactic. We KNOW cooper slaughtered these people and he doesn't have blonde hair so why even test?

Maybe someone will carve up your daughter some day, God forbid, and maybe you won't be so eager to defend them once they are irrefutably guilty. Or actually, you probably will.

And the fact that Carter is free only proves that sometimes guilty people walk. Good for you. A point for your side.

It must suck to have all your opinions and beliefs shaped around simple childish hatred.

Whatever. I pity your daughter.

"Carter is innocent..proven by a court of law...set FREE. You are wrong...nothin' new there. Must really bug you when a black man sees justice."

By this rationale, OJ is innocent.

And, since Kevin Cooper is still on death row, he must be guilty. So the state will execute him and he will see justice. Nope, doesn't bug me.

I'm glad we agree on at least this last point.

Carter, thug that he is, was finally released on a technicality.

He's NEVER been acquited nor has there ever been a movement to free him based on his innocence. ONLY on a procedural technicality.

Please don't tell me that anyone is actually basing their thoughts about carter's innocence on the movie.

Carter was just another garden variety thug and murderer.

shitpile: "He's NEVER been acquited"

Doesn't need to be. The original conviction was vacated. He is innocent unless proven guilty through a new trial. If he's guilty, retry him. Otherwise he is....

INNOCENT AND FREE! Justice for a black man! That must really bug you ooooooooh!

'n' save your pity, shitpile. Maybe someday somebody will carve YOU up! And I will stand there laughing and tramp the fuckin' dirt down on your grave! I'll send those little jailhouse love letters to your killer.

Who knows? Maybe my daughter might even MARRY him!

"INNOCENT AND FREE! Justice for a black man! That must really bug you ooooooooh!"

I'm fine with a black man being free.

It's just the ones who have a propensity for murder that I have a problem with.

Oh well, he'll get his. People never really change. Once a monster always a monster.

What do you mean, he'll get his...he GOT his...and now he is out and, unlike you shitpile, leading a well adjusted life...maybe even got some good scratch from that movie...probably has more money than you..

...just bugs ya, huh shitpile? Maybe you and some of your hooded buddies can pay him a visit in Canada to make sure he gets his.....

"What do you mean, he'll get his"

All I'm sayin' is karma will prevail.

The guy murdered people in cold blood. You don't think that's a fucking weight to carry around?

Although, he is probably a sociopath so he probably has no concience.

No matter. Karma always prevails.

Who you face fartin' about there, shitpile....your hero Sharon?

Yeah...that's a lot of weight..all that blood on his hands.

Now Carter...THERE's a innocent man with a clean soul and a FREE BODY!

Gee, I bet that makes you toss and turn at night...him bein' black and all....so you can fall back on your backdoor Buddhism to try to help you sleep....

First of all, we all know that the only sheet-wearing, jew-hatin' nazi's around here are you and yours.

That Carter is a murderer is simply a fact the good folks of Canada will have to contend with.

And by the way ass, karma is not a conceot of "Buddhism".

Move Over, Mumia
There's a new celebrity on death row.



On those occasions when the Muse is elusive, when the words don't flow as I might wish, when the writer's demon, the blank page, stares me squarely in the face and says, "Now, what?" I often look to the justices of Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for inspiration. They have seldom failed me.

The latest outrage to issue from this court is the stay of execution granted to convicted murderer Kevin Cooper, who was scheduled to die at California's San Quentin Prison at 12:01 Tuesday morning. Some background: On June 2, 1983, Cooper escaped from the California Institute for Men, about 35 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles. He had been housed in a minimum-security area of the prison after being convicted of burglary under the alias David Trautman. (California authorities did not learn until too late that Cooper was an escapee from a Pennsylvania prison. Advances in fingerprint technology presumably would prevent such a lapse from occurring today.) There is uncontroverted evidence that Cooper, after fleeing the California prison, broke into and hid in an empty house in Chino Hills, about two miles away. Cooper made several calls to his girlfriend from the house, the last coming at about 8:00 P.M. on June 4.

On the night of June 4, four people were savagely murdered in the house next door to the one where Cooper had been hiding. A fifth victim miraculously survived the attack. The bodies of Doug and Peggy Ryen, their ten-year-old daughter Jessica, and eleven-year-old houseguest Chris Hughes were discovered the next day by Chris's father. Clinging to life was eight-year-old Joshua Ryen, who had spent some eleven hours with his fingers pressed to his bleeding throat while lying next to his dead mother. All the victims had been stabbed and hacked with a buck knife and a hatchet.

Cooper fled to Mexico, but was apprehended in July 1983 when he was accused of raping a woman at knifepoint. He was returned to San Bernardino County, tried, and convicted for the Chino Hills crimes, and sentenced to death. His case has wound its way through the various appellate courts ever since, and on Monday the U.S. Supreme Court refused to vacate the eleventh-hour stay granted by an en banc panel of the Ninth Circuit.

Cooper's defense team is today led by Lanny Davis, best remembered as the shameless mouthpiece for an even more shameless former president. "We got ‘em!" exclaimed Davis when the Supreme Court refused to vacate the stay of execution. "The Supreme Court of the United States tonight ratified the fundamental concept of the American justice system, which is the truth must come out before we kill a man." Mr. Davis's commitment to the truth has not visibly advanced, it seems, since the days he spent shilling for Bill Clinton.

So, what is the truth? The truth is that Kevin Cooper is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, indeed beyond any doubt, of the crimes for which he was convicted. To obfuscate this inconvenient fact, the Cooper defense team has woven a phantasmagoric tale of previously ignored witnesses and evidence, imaginary suspects, and, of course, police corruption and planted evidence. The defense contends that the strands of blond or light brown hair found clutched in Jessica Ryen's hand eliminates Cooper, a black man, as a suspect. But this hair proves nothing. As was shown at the trial, these hairs were cut, not pulled, and were in all likelihood deposited by a houseguest sometime before the murders only to be picked up as Jessica writhed on the floor before dying.
The defense also attempts to make an issue of a shoe print left at the crime scene. The print was linked to a type of shoe distributed in California prisons, and a representative of Stride Rite Shoes testified at trial that the shoe in question, the "Pro-Ked Dude," was manufactured solely for distribution in prisons and other institutions. To bolster Cooper's claim of an alternate suspect (known around the courthouse as the "Some Other Dude" defense), Davis produced a statement from Midge Carroll, who served as the prison warden at the time of Cooper's escape. "I learned that the shoes we carried were not prison-manufactured or specially designed prison-issue shoes," Carroll wrote. "I learned that the shoes were common tennis shoes available to the general public through Sears and Roebuck other such retail stores . . ."

From this the Ninth Circuit's majority opinion draws the following inference: "[I]f Warden Carroll had been put on the stand and had been believed by the jury, the jury would have known that Cooper was almost certainly not wearing ‘Pro-Ked Dude' shoes." But the jury would have known no such thing. The most favorable conclusion the jury might have drawn for Cooper was that, by some incalculably improbable twist of fate, Some Other Dude had committed the murders while wearing shoes exactly like those issued in prison, and had done so only minutes after Cooper left the house next door. Inconveniently for Cooper, similar shoe prints were also found in that home, and they were the only prints discovered there.

But Cooper hangs his greatest hope on science. A bloodstained T-shirt was found some distance from the crime scene, and DNA testing performed at Cooper's request during the appeal process (such testing was not available at the time of the trial) revealed the presence of both Cooper's and Doug Ryen's blood. The cops planted it, the defense now claims, and additional testing will reveal the presence of the preservative EDTA in the recovered blood sample. Some readers will recall a similar claim made during the O. J. Simpson trial, when the blood of both victims was found on a pair of socks recovered from Simpson's bedroom. I still shudder at the memory of one female juror facing the cameras and explaining the not-guilty verdict: "Well, there was ETA [sic] on them socks . . ." Yes, EDTA is used as a preservative in blood samples, but it is also present in laundry detergent and a wide variety of other common household items, and its presence in Cooper's case will be no more proof of his innocence than it was of Simpson's. And this evidence-planting theory presumes a staggeringly uncommon level of genius and cunning on the part of the allegedly corrupt cops: At Cooper's trial, prosecutors contended only that Doug Ryen's blood was on the T-shirt. Cooper's blood wasn't discovered until years later when the DNA testing was completed. In order for the defense's theory to hold water, one would have to believe that police officers planted the blood on the T-shirt, but then kept silent about it in the hope that it would be discovered when the science had sufficiently advanced. Not even Johnnie Cochran could tell a whopper like that with a straight face.

None of this matters to the death-penalty opponents who have made a hero out of Kevin Cooper. Jesse Jackson, Sean Penn, Richard Dreyfuss, and Denzel Washington have all joined in the effort to keep Cooper from his appointment with the executioner. And, like fellow convicted murderer Mumia Abu Jamal, Cooper has taken up the pen to become something of a celebrity among the Loony Left. It can only be a matter of time before someone nominates him for a Nobel Peace Prize.

— Jack Dunphy is an officer in the Los Angeles Police Department. "Jack Dunphy" is the author's nom de cyber. The opinions expressed are his own and almost certainly do not reflect those of the LAPD management.

Nazi????? Yeah, whatever....

shitpile, ya seem a little defensive there....nobody called you a nazi.... I noticed you like to throw the phrase off at others, though...sortofa...."preemptive" strategy....mi racista pequeño amontona de mierda!

Nazi????? Yeah, whatever....

shitpile, ya seem a little defensive there....nobody called you a nazi.... I noticed you like to throw the phrase off at others, though...sortofa...."preemptive" strategy....mi racista pequeño amontona de mierda!

And, by the way, who cares what crazy cunthair "conceot" you twist to make your little blanky for sleepy time, shitpile.....

....watch out...there might be a FREE blackman under your bed...but don't worry...kharma will get him!


HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

This just in:

Kevin Cooper is still guilty.

Some people are against the death penalty, buy may think he is guilty.

I think the death penalty should be abolished because it's applied unfairly. Moreover, in my utopian vision, the individual right to their own existence supercedes the right of the state to take life. (That's not how its ever worked, but maybe we can get closer to that ideal.)

The government tries to kill everyone. They tried to kill me, could not, and now hold me as a prisoner for auditing them.

I would rather be executed by my own people with my own methods than to be the prisoner of the awful and corrupt government of California, the Federal, and Alabama and Louisiana.

Certain factions want war with the world. They want annihilation most likely. There may be a boat off of this shanty rig.

Free aRt and music at the sight. If you want dixie, see Dick See.

Once I was told that it best to put some golden brown eggs in the multi-millionario monsters cornish hen. I prayed upon my own tombstone, "Let me sit with the victims of tyranny if for only a brief moment, and if I have helped them, give me XXII>"

I can not email the New Nazi governor without permission from the Los Angeles Federal Mafia. Therefore, I ask you to send my name and X number to the Governator, what a joke, and let me Stand-in during the execution.

I have lived a long time and have survived their attacks. I just want to watch this booger body pop in their faces so that I can be waiting on the other side with a talon for their asp.

I apologize to Cooper's family. I believe if a man wants to live in their hell, he should be able to. If he wants to die instead of living in their hell, he should be able to, e.g. serial killer Randy Kraft wanted to die and they made him live. I rode with that guy. Que Sera Sera ain't no Doris Day Mantra.

Breaking News:

Kevin Cooper, violent rapist and murderer, is STILL guilty.

Hey, when are we gonna fry this bastard, anyway?

And where did all his passionate defenders go?

Off to the protest-du-jour? Don't forget to drink your Evian, kiddies. It's hot at those protests in all that black clothing.

Go lick a fat cigar, simple simon.

This just in:

Kevin Cooper is STILL guilty.

..and you are still my doggie...

Vex me not infant, or suffer another humiliation.

You couldn't hold your side of an argument with whatever it is I stepped on at the dumpster.

Stick to pouring my Latte's son.

fido: "Vex me not infant, or suffer another humiliation. "

...oooooo...I am all aquiver with FRIGHT!

...so diving dumpsters, huh....no doubt for some more of your profound intellectual insight....my little puppy.

Late breaking news: Kevin Cooper is STILL guilty.

Just thought you should know.

Reagan honored ALL WEEK for the Great Leader he was, and now animal Cooper finally getting his long overdue date with the Devil. Ha ha ha.

What a lousy week to be a liberal.

The only way it could get any better is if mumia killed the head of the ACLU and then himself.

As for guilty-as-sin Cooper, you'd think this child-killing savage would have the BALLS to take his deserving death like a man, since his will be FAR too gentle compared to the horror suffered by his victims.

Of lefties who believe everyone on Death Row is innocent, P.T. Barnum said it best: "There's a liberal born every minute."

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UPDATE: Juror Kahloah Doxey is irked that high-profile figures such as the Rev. Jesse Jackson and actor Denzel Washington have criticized the verdict. Kahloah Doxey served as a juror 19 years ago, but she still remembers the crime-scene photos clearly enough: a family butchered like animals, the dead father kneeling with his head bent low, as if he were in prayer. "It never really leaves you," Doxey said. "The pictures are going to be in my mind forever." Doxey's jury imposed the death penalty on a prison escapee named Kevin Cooper, who came within hours of execution last month before an appeals court ordered a halt to the proceeding. Capital punishment cases drag on for decades in California, causing frustration and stress for all interested parties: victims' families, prosecutors, defense lawyers. And for jurors, too. 12 people vote for a death penalty and then must cope with the consequences: lingering memories, crises of conscience, scrutiny by the appellate system, frustrations about whether their sentence will ever be carried out. In recent interviews, Doxey and two other Cooper jurors expressed exasperation at a case they have been living since 1985, a case that now has come back to visit them in fitful ways. All three said they still believe that Cooper, 46, is guilty, despite defense arguments that he might have been framed. They remain haunted by details and images from the trial a father's anguished testimony, the rug burns one of the victims suffered in a furious but unsuccessful attempt to save her children's lives. They still grieve for Josh Ryen, an 8-year-old boy who lived through the ordeal even after his throat was slashed. In the years since their verdict, none of the 3 jurors has been able to talk to Josh, although Doxey, in recent months, has devised a modest plan to track him down. "We'd like to hug him," Doxey said, "and tell him we did the best we could." The evidence, the jurors said, seemed overwhelming. In June 1983 four people were hacked to death with a hatchet and knife in a Chino Hills house in San Bernardino County. The dead were Douglas Ryen, his wife, Peggy, both 41 and chiropractors; their daughter Jessica, 10; and Christopher Hughes, an 11-year-old boy who was spending the night. Josh, the Ryens' son, lay for hours next to his dead mother, clutching his bleeding throat. Prosecutors accused Cooper, who had escaped two days earlier from a nearby prison where he was doing time for burglary, of killing the family so he could steal their car. As a result of heavy publicity, the case was tried in San Diego County, where the jury convicted him based on several incriminating facts: Cooper admitted to hiding out in a vacant house next door to the Ryens. Inside that house, investigators found blood and hair consistent with some of the victims. A bloodstained hatchet found near the Ryen home had been taken from the vacant house. Shoe prints in the Ryens' house were consistent with Cooper's prison-issued sneakers. Inside the family's stolen car, which was recovered in Long Beach, was a hand-rolled cigarette butt containing a brand of prison tobacco that Cooper was known to smoke. In voting for execution, juror Donna Randle decided she wanted to eliminate any possibility that Cooper might be paroled one day. "It came down to, do we ever want the possibility of this guy getting out again?" Randle said during a recent interview at a Kearny Mesa diner, where she and Doxey agreed to talk about the case. In the jury room, the count reached 11-1 in favor of the death penalty. The lone holdout was Doxey, who had some reservations about capital punishment. She paced the room, chewing on Tums and studying the trial exhibits as the other jurors slumped in their chairs, some resting their heads on the table. She eventually would develop an ulcer. She said she finally decided to vote for death after looking at 2 pictures of 11-year-old Christopher. One was of the boy in life, smiling and happy. The other was of his disfigured body, his arm nearly severed. "I probably won't live to see him die," one of the jurors declared after the panel recommended Cooper be executed. That juror, who was in his 60s or 70s, died a few years later, according to Randle and Doxey. After the trial, the 12 men and women made vague plans to contact one another. But they fell out of touch for reasons that seem understandable in retrospect. "Why would we want to get together to relive all that?" Doxey said. Years passed. The victims would appear in Doxey's dreams from time to time. She would think about Christopher's father, who was the 1st person to find the bodies and whose heartbreaking testimony had made jurors cry. The simple act of driving past the courthouse in downtown San Diego made her physically sick. She felt compelled to save all her juror notebooks, storing them in boxes in her house in Logan Heights. In one of the notebooks she had written, "Conspiracy, Yes" a reference to her belief that investigators cut corners and told some outright lies during the trial. In the years since the trial, different judges have had widely different opinions on the credibility of the police work in the case. Doxey's poor opinion of the investigation, however, didn't change her fundamental belief about Cooper's guilt. Randle would find herself wondering how Josh Ryen was coping with life. At the time of the trial, the boy had testified via videotape, never appearing in person in the courtroom. "Poor Josh," she would think. "He lost his mother, his father, his sister and his very best friend." Over the years, the foreman of the jury, Frank Nugent of downtown San Diego, began to reconsider his views about the death penalty. Stories about wrongly convicted death-row inmates gave him pause. At the time of trial, he said, his decision to vote for death had been made more palatable by the abstraction of it all. It was a penalty, he figured, that probably would never come to pass. "To be honest with you," he said during a recent telephone interview, "I never thought the day would ever come." Decades passed. Nugent, now 72, retired from his job as a church office manager. Randle, now 51 and living in Santee, retired from her job as a Pacific Bell technician. Doxey, now 67, retired from her supervisory position at University of California San Diego Medical Center's department of pathology and became a foster parent and a great-grandmother. Meanwhile, Cooper's various appeals began running out. Last December, San Diego Superior Court Judge William Kennedy set an execution date of Feb. 10. "It's about time," Doxey thought when she heard the news. Nugent, the foreman, was more conflicted. As the execution date grew closer, he said, part of him began thinking, "I hope this just goes away." Was it possible they had convicted the wrong man? Doxey didn't think so, even though a defense investigator arrived at her house in January to talk about some evidence evidence, the investigator said, that might exonerate Cooper. Among other things, one of the victims, Jessica, had been found clutching blond hair in her hand. The hair didn't belong to Cooper, who is black. Other evidence, the defense said, pointed to multiple killers. Doxey was aware that incriminating evidence had emerged in the years since the trial. A 2002 DNA test on a blood spot inside the Ryens' house revealed the blood to be Cooper's. Still, at the investigator's request, Doxey agreed to write a letter to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asking the state to perform a DNA test on the hair. She wanted to know the whole truth. "Too much continues to bother me about this case," she wrote. In her interview with The San Diego Union-Tribune, she said she has never had any doubts that Cooper played a role in the massacre. She wondered, however, whether he might have had accomplices. At the behest of the defense, Randle also wrote the governor. Her letter expressed concern about "unanswered questions" that she found "damn disturbing." She also wanted a DNA test on the hair in Jessica's hand. Why not perform the test when it might help shed some light on the facts? Like Doxey, Randle wanted to know as much of the truth as possible. She also remained convinced that Cooper was involved in the killings in some fashion. "There is no doubt in my mind that he did it and he deserves to be executed," she said. The defense investigator also convinced Nugent to write to the governor. is letter pleaded with Schwarzenegger to spare Cooper's life, in light of the defense's "newly discovered facts." By this time, Nugent said, he was actually hoping Cooper's lawyers might somehow prove their client had nothing to do with the horrible crime. His unease with the idea of capital punishment had become that pronounced, he said. Yet he continues, to this day, to believe that Cooper is guilty. "The evidence was overwhelming," he said. Despite the jurors' letters, the governor refused to grant clemency. As Cooper's execution date drew near, his case attracted various celebrities and anti-death-penalty activists who said Cooper might well be innocent. The Rev. Jesse Jackson showed up in San Diego to hold a news conference, at which he cited the letters written by the jurors as evidence that executing Cooper would be a grave injustice. Randle said she pulled Jackson aside before he stepped up to the podium. "You listen to me," she told him. "When you go up there, don't you dare say I don't think he's guilty." Eight hours before Cooper's scheduled execution at San Quentin State Prison, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay, saying Cooper's defense team should have a chance to perform DNA testing on the hair in Jessica's hand. The court also said Cooper's lawyers should be able to conduct chemical tests that might help determine if some of the evidence was planted. In a recent interview, Deputy Attorney General Holly Wilkens estimated the court's ruling would postpone Cooper's potential execution at least two years, with the new testing guaranteed to set off a new round of appeals. A hearing this Friday before federal Judge Marilyn Huff in U.S. District Court in San Diego will help determine what type of scientific tests the defense can conduct. During the interview at the Kearny Mesa diner, Doxey and Randle expressed astonishment at the possible length of a delay. When the two women wrote their letters to the governor, they figured the scientific tests might postpone the execution by a few days or a few weeks. They talked about other frustrations, too. They said they were miffed that various high-profile figures Jackson, actor Denzel Washington were casting aspersions on a verdict they had worked so hard to reach. Doxey said she regrets sending the letter to the governor, and regrets her choice of wording. Her letter expressed doubts about her decision to sentence Cooper to death, given the shoddy police work and still-unanswered questions. She wrote the letter, she said, because she felt overwhelmed at the time by the defense investigator's persistence, by the pending execution, by all mysteries surrounding the crime that wouldn't go away. She said she now thinks Cooper should be executed as soon as possible. (At least one other juror wrote a letter to the governor requesting additional testing on the hair in Jessica's hand. "I would hate to see an innocent man die for something he didn't do," the juror wrote.) Doxey also said she has given a great deal of thought over the years to the idea of tracking down Josh Ryen. She has even considered placing an open letter to him in Parade magazine, requesting a meeting. She said she just wants to talk to him to see if he is doing OK. Ryen is 29 now, lives in Southern California, works as a carpenter and has a girlfriend. People who have met him say he is a nice, soft-spoken guy. He has turned down numerous recent media requests for interviews, and his lawyer, Milt Silverman of San Diego, said Ryen would rather not meet with any jurors from the case. He would prefer "to be as invisible in the process as he can be," his lawyer said. In a January letter to the governor, Ryen listed some of his scattered memories from the night his parents and sister were killed. He remembers a figure "with bushy hair." He remembers putting all four of his fingers into a hole in his neck to stop the flow of blood. He remembers "seeing my mother, naked, dead and bloody, lying beside me, and knowing from the smell that everyone else was gone as well." He remembers rescue workers putting him into a helicopter and removing his Incredible Hulk pajamas. Ryen has said he wants to see Cooper executed. Nugent, the jury foreman, said he prays that Ryen and the relatives of Christopher Hughes will find peace. "Our suffering is nothing compared to the anguish of the families of the victims and Josh himself," Nugent said. Doxey and Randle, for their part, yearn for the entire truth about what happened in the Ryen house that day in 1983, the sort of complete truth that is elusive in many criminal cases. And, of course, they want finality. "I just want it over," Randle said. "I just want it over. The family needs closure and we need closure, too."

I bet you're crying about the court's desision to test the DNA aren't you?

Who gives them the right to take a life. Sounds like this man is being rail roaded, and discriminated, on the account that he was already a prisoner, and african american. The evidence is right in their face, that this man did not commit those murders. If our governor, allows this execution, he would be just as simple as the prosecutors. God Bless the innocent.