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Execution of Kevin Cooper Halted!
Hundreds Protest at the Gates of San Quentin as the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issues a stay of execution for Kevin Cooper
San Quentin State Prison, February 9- In a dramatic change of events, less than 4 hours before his scheduled execution, Kevin Cooper has been granted a stay from death by lethal injection. The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals earlier in the day had ruled 9-2 to send the case back to a federal judge in San Diego because of a significant amount of information that has surfaced indicating that San Bernadino police planted and tampered with evidence in order to get a conviction of Cooper for the 1983 deaths of 4 people.
Prior to the ruling Democratic Attorney General Bill Lockyer began an appeal process to petition the Supreme Court to overrule the stay. The San Francisco office of the ANSWER Coalition immediately activated its phone fax and email network flooding the Attorney General’s office to demand he not appeal the lower court’s decision.
Despite the stay, opponents of the death penalty continued their mobilizing efforts to march on San Quentin where Kevin Cooper was in a deathwatch cell 12 feet from the execution chamber. It had become clear when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger denied Cooper even the customary clemency hearing that the state of California was hell bent on following through with the execution despite the growing evidence of Cooper’s innocence.
In recent weeks the Cooper case has galvanized progressive forces around the state and has become a focus of attention nationally as well as the sentiment against the death penalty gains momentum. Demonstrations have taken place all over the state including protests at Schwarzenegger’s mansion in Los Angeles. Full-page ads by the Committee to Stop the Execution of Kevin Cooper appeared in the New York Times and several California newspapers. Actors and well known progressive voices have lent their names to stop the execution including Denzel Washington, Mike Farrell, Danny Glover, Anjelica Houston, Angela Davis, Noam Chomsky and many others. Legislators from all over Europe spoke out against the execution including the mayor of Schwarzenegger’s hometown in Austria.
As media trucks lined up tonight in front of the West Gate to San Quentin hundreds of protestors started to march the 1.5 mile march from the Larkspur Ferry to the main gate near the Richmond San Rafael Bridge across San Francisco Bay. The loud and militant demonstration forced the California Highway Patrol to stop traffic in the westbound lane of the bridge. The march had large contingents from the Campaign to End the Death Penalty and the ANSWER Coalition. When the protest got close to the gate of San Quentin they were met by another one hundred cheering anti death penalty protestors as it was announced that the U.S. Supreme Court had refused to intervene.
Speaker after Speaker reiterated that tonight was a victory for the people. The fact that Kevin Cooper was still alive signals that people see the death penalty as not just a flawed system from a technical point of view but one that is a racist instrument of repression against the poor. Several former death row prisoners spoke including Shujaa Graham and Juan Roberto Melendez, a Puerto Rican, who was on death row for 17 years and was the 99th person to be exonerated. He stated that, “the judicial system makes so many mistakes that an innocent man can easily get killed.”
Jesse Jackson who had met with Kevin Cooper several time in the last week told the crowd “this is part of a struggle across the nation to remove a system that is flawed.”
Gloria La Riva speaking for the ANSWER Coalition drew a thunderous applause when she said, “It is George Bush that should be sitting on death row for his war crimes in Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan and for killing over 250 prisoners while the governor of Texas."
Although buoyed by tonight’s victory activists left San Quentin knowing that Kevin Cooper’s reprieve is for at least 40 days before the state can issue another death warrant and during that time the struggle has to not just continue to exist but to grow.
Prior to the ruling Democratic Attorney General Bill Lockyer began an appeal process to petition the Supreme Court to overrule the stay. The San Francisco office of the ANSWER Coalition immediately activated its phone fax and email network flooding the Attorney General’s office to demand he not appeal the lower court’s decision.
Despite the stay, opponents of the death penalty continued their mobilizing efforts to march on San Quentin where Kevin Cooper was in a deathwatch cell 12 feet from the execution chamber. It had become clear when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger denied Cooper even the customary clemency hearing that the state of California was hell bent on following through with the execution despite the growing evidence of Cooper’s innocence.
In recent weeks the Cooper case has galvanized progressive forces around the state and has become a focus of attention nationally as well as the sentiment against the death penalty gains momentum. Demonstrations have taken place all over the state including protests at Schwarzenegger’s mansion in Los Angeles. Full-page ads by the Committee to Stop the Execution of Kevin Cooper appeared in the New York Times and several California newspapers. Actors and well known progressive voices have lent their names to stop the execution including Denzel Washington, Mike Farrell, Danny Glover, Anjelica Houston, Angela Davis, Noam Chomsky and many others. Legislators from all over Europe spoke out against the execution including the mayor of Schwarzenegger’s hometown in Austria.
As media trucks lined up tonight in front of the West Gate to San Quentin hundreds of protestors started to march the 1.5 mile march from the Larkspur Ferry to the main gate near the Richmond San Rafael Bridge across San Francisco Bay. The loud and militant demonstration forced the California Highway Patrol to stop traffic in the westbound lane of the bridge. The march had large contingents from the Campaign to End the Death Penalty and the ANSWER Coalition. When the protest got close to the gate of San Quentin they were met by another one hundred cheering anti death penalty protestors as it was announced that the U.S. Supreme Court had refused to intervene.
Speaker after Speaker reiterated that tonight was a victory for the people. The fact that Kevin Cooper was still alive signals that people see the death penalty as not just a flawed system from a technical point of view but one that is a racist instrument of repression against the poor. Several former death row prisoners spoke including Shujaa Graham and Juan Roberto Melendez, a Puerto Rican, who was on death row for 17 years and was the 99th person to be exonerated. He stated that, “the judicial system makes so many mistakes that an innocent man can easily get killed.”
Jesse Jackson who had met with Kevin Cooper several time in the last week told the crowd “this is part of a struggle across the nation to remove a system that is flawed.”
Gloria La Riva speaking for the ANSWER Coalition drew a thunderous applause when she said, “It is George Bush that should be sitting on death row for his war crimes in Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan and for killing over 250 prisoners while the governor of Texas."
Although buoyed by tonight’s victory activists left San Quentin knowing that Kevin Cooper’s reprieve is for at least 40 days before the state can issue another death warrant and during that time the struggle has to not just continue to exist but to grow.
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"TWO YEARS AGO, (San Quentin Death-Row inmate Kevin) Cooper offered to drop his appeals and submit to execution if the DNA tests point to his guilt" in four first-degree murder convictions for the 1983 slayings of chiropractors Peggy Ryen, Douglas Ryen, their 10-year-old daughter, Jessica, and their son's best friend, 11-year-old Christopher Hughes, the (Riverside) Press Enterprise reported in 2000.
Lo and behold, in May 2001, the state agreed to DNA tests -- and they ended up providing more proof that Cooper killed Hughes and the Ryens, then left 8-year-old Joshua Ryen with a slit throat that somehow didn't kill him.
Despite his declaration, no surprise, Cooper still is appealing. His latest set of lawyers have asked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to grant Cooper clemency, or a reprieve of his scheduled Feb. 10 execution so that other tests that also are supposed to exonerate Cooper can be conducted.
This is a crime that never should have happened. It occurred after Cooper escaped from a Pennsylvania institution, then raped a teenage girl who interrupted him during a burglary. Cooper fled to California where he was arrested for two more burglaries. In June 1983, Cooper escaped a minimum- security facility, then hid for two days in an empty Chino Hills home that overlooked the Ryens' house. Prosecutors believe Cooper committed the murders so that he could steal their car, which turned up in Long Beach, as he escaped to Mexico.
During his 1985 trial, Cooper testified he had never entered the Ryen house. But the DNA tests showed that blood found in the home was his. Cooper had testified that he didn't drive the Ryen car. But investigators found Cooper's DNA on cigarette butts found in the Ryen car. Cooper's DNA was linked to blood found on a T-shirt, along with DNA from Douglas Ryen.
So now Cooper's advocates want to test for EDTA, a preservative used in test-tube blood, to see if police tampered with the evidence. Cooper's legal team also has called for testing of hairs found in Jessica Ryen's clenched hand. The blond hairs are supposed to prove Cooper, who is black, did not kill the Ryens.
But Senior Assistant Attorney General Dane Gillette points out that none of the hairs "were pulled out of a head. They're cut hair. A lot of them are animal hair."
Cooper's boosters point to early statements by Joshua Ryen that three men committed the crimes. Jurors heard the three-man theory, but decided to follow the evidence. Now some jurors have second thoughts. But when the case was fresh, they were unanimous.
A 1991 California Supreme Court ruling summed up the case against Cooper: "It is utterly unreasonable to suppose that by coincidence, some hypothetical real killer chose this night and this locale to kill; that he entered (the neighbor's) house just after defendant left to retrieve the murder weapons, leaving the hatchet sheath in the bedroom defendant used; that he returned to the (neighbor's) house to shower; that he drove the Ryen station wagon in the same direction defendant used on his way to Mexico; and that he happened to wear prison issue tennis shoes like those of the defendant, happened to have the defendant's blood type, happened to have hair like the defendant's, happened to roll cigarettes with the same distinctive prison issued tobacco, and so forth."
That was the case before the DNA tests.
Cooper's lawyers' best argument is: What is the harm in conducting an EDTA test? Prosecutor Gillette notes problems with EDTA testing that came out during the O.J. Simpson case.
Milt Silverman, who represents Joshua Ryen, scoffed at the notion that police framed Cooper. "You mean before they went and took the picture (of the blood) in the hallway, they got Cooper's blood somehow. How could it be planted on the wall?" he asked.
Then there's the fact that if the test implicates Cooper -- again -- that inconvenient fact won't matter -- again. At an editorial board meeting, I asked Cooper's lawyers if they would believe that Cooper is guilty and should be executed if the EDTA test shows no tampering. No one said yes, even to the first half of the question.
No incriminating evidence matters to them. There's always a new excuse.
They ask me: What motive did Cooper have to kill four strangers?
I ask them: What motive did he have to rape a teenager? And why would anyone kill the Ryens?
Cooper's supporters are so credulous, they wrote in a letter to Schwarzenegger, "It is imperative to note that it was Kevin Cooper who -- years after his conviction -- insisted on DNA testing. Mr. Cooper's request strongly suggests his belief in his innocence."
Hey, why not? With this crowd, Cooper had nothing to lose.
Lo and behold, in May 2001, the state agreed to DNA tests -- and they ended up providing more proof that Cooper killed Hughes and the Ryens, then left 8-year-old Joshua Ryen with a slit throat that somehow didn't kill him.
Despite his declaration, no surprise, Cooper still is appealing. His latest set of lawyers have asked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to grant Cooper clemency, or a reprieve of his scheduled Feb. 10 execution so that other tests that also are supposed to exonerate Cooper can be conducted.
This is a crime that never should have happened. It occurred after Cooper escaped from a Pennsylvania institution, then raped a teenage girl who interrupted him during a burglary. Cooper fled to California where he was arrested for two more burglaries. In June 1983, Cooper escaped a minimum- security facility, then hid for two days in an empty Chino Hills home that overlooked the Ryens' house. Prosecutors believe Cooper committed the murders so that he could steal their car, which turned up in Long Beach, as he escaped to Mexico.
During his 1985 trial, Cooper testified he had never entered the Ryen house. But the DNA tests showed that blood found in the home was his. Cooper had testified that he didn't drive the Ryen car. But investigators found Cooper's DNA on cigarette butts found in the Ryen car. Cooper's DNA was linked to blood found on a T-shirt, along with DNA from Douglas Ryen.
So now Cooper's advocates want to test for EDTA, a preservative used in test-tube blood, to see if police tampered with the evidence. Cooper's legal team also has called for testing of hairs found in Jessica Ryen's clenched hand. The blond hairs are supposed to prove Cooper, who is black, did not kill the Ryens.
But Senior Assistant Attorney General Dane Gillette points out that none of the hairs "were pulled out of a head. They're cut hair. A lot of them are animal hair."
Cooper's boosters point to early statements by Joshua Ryen that three men committed the crimes. Jurors heard the three-man theory, but decided to follow the evidence. Now some jurors have second thoughts. But when the case was fresh, they were unanimous.
A 1991 California Supreme Court ruling summed up the case against Cooper: "It is utterly unreasonable to suppose that by coincidence, some hypothetical real killer chose this night and this locale to kill; that he entered (the neighbor's) house just after defendant left to retrieve the murder weapons, leaving the hatchet sheath in the bedroom defendant used; that he returned to the (neighbor's) house to shower; that he drove the Ryen station wagon in the same direction defendant used on his way to Mexico; and that he happened to wear prison issue tennis shoes like those of the defendant, happened to have the defendant's blood type, happened to have hair like the defendant's, happened to roll cigarettes with the same distinctive prison issued tobacco, and so forth."
That was the case before the DNA tests.
Cooper's lawyers' best argument is: What is the harm in conducting an EDTA test? Prosecutor Gillette notes problems with EDTA testing that came out during the O.J. Simpson case.
Milt Silverman, who represents Joshua Ryen, scoffed at the notion that police framed Cooper. "You mean before they went and took the picture (of the blood) in the hallway, they got Cooper's blood somehow. How could it be planted on the wall?" he asked.
Then there's the fact that if the test implicates Cooper -- again -- that inconvenient fact won't matter -- again. At an editorial board meeting, I asked Cooper's lawyers if they would believe that Cooper is guilty and should be executed if the EDTA test shows no tampering. No one said yes, even to the first half of the question.
No incriminating evidence matters to them. There's always a new excuse.
They ask me: What motive did Cooper have to kill four strangers?
I ask them: What motive did he have to rape a teenager? And why would anyone kill the Ryens?
Cooper's supporters are so credulous, they wrote in a letter to Schwarzenegger, "It is imperative to note that it was Kevin Cooper who -- years after his conviction -- insisted on DNA testing. Mr. Cooper's request strongly suggests his belief in his innocence."
Hey, why not? With this crowd, Cooper had nothing to lose.
The death penalty is always wrong and it is outrageous that someone who claims to be a socialist would advocate the death penalty for anyone. No matter how evil a person is, and certainly the evil perpetrated by the current US government is obvious, we cannot support the same evil that they promote. The more advanced workingclass of Europe has achieved total abolition of the death penalty in Europe, and that is what all socialists must support: Total abolition of the death penalty and of prisons as both by definition promote punishment instead of rehabilitation.
The fact that Cuba still has the death penalty and prisons makes it even more obvious that those who fight for socialism in the 21st Century must not follow the same dead-end route of the Stalinist counter-revolution that led to the temporary abeyance of socialist development on planet Earth,with the end of the Soviet Union in 1991 attempted socialism in Eastern Europe, and with Cuba having gone on the dollar standard in 1993 and since then, allowing open prostitution among many other evils. Socialist Cuba had eliminated prostitution by giving the prostitutes job training and placing them in decent paying jobs, commonly known as diversion programs in the US. The duty of all socialist countries is to defend socialism and promote the needs and interests of the workingclass, and that by definition means abolishing the death penalty and prisons.
The death penalty and prisons are always wrong and anyone who promotes either should be BOOED LOUDLY.
This is the 21st Century, and we are going to advance the needs and interests of the workingclass and promote socialism correctly this time, having learned from the problems of the 20th Century. Socialists by definition always promote abolition of the death penalty and prisons and support rehabilitation, education, health care and job training for everyone to make everyone productive members of society free to realize their full potential.
The fact that Cuba still has the death penalty and prisons makes it even more obvious that those who fight for socialism in the 21st Century must not follow the same dead-end route of the Stalinist counter-revolution that led to the temporary abeyance of socialist development on planet Earth,with the end of the Soviet Union in 1991 attempted socialism in Eastern Europe, and with Cuba having gone on the dollar standard in 1993 and since then, allowing open prostitution among many other evils. Socialist Cuba had eliminated prostitution by giving the prostitutes job training and placing them in decent paying jobs, commonly known as diversion programs in the US. The duty of all socialist countries is to defend socialism and promote the needs and interests of the workingclass, and that by definition means abolishing the death penalty and prisons.
The death penalty and prisons are always wrong and anyone who promotes either should be BOOED LOUDLY.
This is the 21st Century, and we are going to advance the needs and interests of the workingclass and promote socialism correctly this time, having learned from the problems of the 20th Century. Socialists by definition always promote abolition of the death penalty and prisons and support rehabilitation, education, health care and job training for everyone to make everyone productive members of society free to realize their full potential.
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