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Thread: Kevin Cooper - California Death Row

  1. #31
    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    Death row inmate asks Gov. Newsom for innocence investigation

    By Kevin Cooper
    The San Francisco Chronicle

    On his way out of office, Gov. Jerry Brown ordered limited DNA testing in my capital murder case, but it will take the broader investigation I requested if I’m going to have a meaningful opportunity to prove my innocence.

    Old cases like mine require substantial investigations to prove innocence. Numerous judges, others in the legal community and investigative reporters have concluded that the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department framed me in 1983 for a crime I did not commit — the horrific murders of Doug and Peggy Ryen and their daughter, Jessica, 10, and of their neighbor, Christopher Hughes, 11. Josh Ryen, 8, survived and said from his emergency room bed the killers were three white men. I am black.

    As Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge William Fletcher put it in 2009, the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department “manipulated and planted evidence in order to convict Cooper. In the course of their investigation, the sheriff’s office personnel discounted, disregarded, and discarded evidence pointing to other killers.” Finding out what happened to that evidence that was planted, disregarded and discounted, and testing what evidence might still exist, is crucial to show I did not commit the “Chino Hills” murders.

    The sheriff’s department has numerous documents never given to my lawyers that will show how exonerating information was ignored and evidence used to convict me was falsified. The documents will show I am innocent, could lead to the real killers and, hopefully, uncover who in the sheriff’s department framed me.

    An editor’s note

    Kevin Cooper’s Feb. 10, 2004, execution was stayed to allow further DNA testing, which was done. His DNA was found on a bloody shirt, and his death sentence reaffirmed. Cooper has filed multiple appeals, all of which have been denied. Questions however still arise. A retired judge now has been assigned to oversee the DNA testing of the four items selected and authorized by Gov. Brown’s executive order.

    The Chronicle solicited an opinion editorial from newly elected San Bernardino District Attorney Jason Anderson. He declined, saying it would be inappropriate as the case is in litigation.

    In my February 2016 clemency petition to Gov. Brown, I asked for an “innocence investigation” and listed the type of documents I need the courts to review: one showing what happened to a blue short-sleeve shirt with blood on it that was found near the crime scene and disappeared in the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department’s custody; and another proving Midge Carroll, warden of the California Institution for Men from which I had escaped, called the sheriff’s department to correct the prosecution’s false claim that crime-scene shoe prints were from shoes sold exclusively to prisons. (The shoes were available at retail stores). Some jurors said this claim helped lead them to find me guilty.

    I want documents relating to testing done on incriminating cigarette butts in the Ryens’ station wagon, and documents from the Scripps Research Institute that initially concluded there were high levels of the blood preservative ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) in a spot of my blood found with Doug Ryen’s blood on a medium-size, tan T-shirt believed to be worn by the killer. I wear a size large.

    The EDTA results, presented in my 2004 habeas hearing, proved the blood was taken from a vial of blood drawn when I was arrested and planted on that shirt. The test result was withdrawn after its import became known, and the judge refused to grant another. The vial later was found to have my blood and the blood of at least one unknown person. I want to see the chain of custody for that tan T-shirt that went missing from the sheriff’s department evidence locker for many months prior to trial.

    Also, I would ask for any documents relating to a sheriff’s department attempt to intimidate a witness into not testifying in my 2004 habeas hearing about seeing three strangers with blood on them in a neighborhood bar near the crime scene the night of the Ryen-Hughes murders. The witness testified anyway.

    Some testing was done, but testing was withheld from tiny blood spots found near a slightly larger blood spot, the only piece of evidence that supposedly linked me to the Ryens’ house. My lawyer believes the large blood spot was planted; a test for EDTA on the larger spot (marked as exhibit A-41) was denied by the judge in 2004.

    We need the test results from the smaller spots, which I believe could exonerate me.

    For unknown reasons, Gov. Brown did not grant five of the DNA tests I requested, tests I believe could show who committed these murders and establish my innocence, including DNA tests of hairs clutched in the victims’ hands as well as the victims’ fingernail scrapings. Why withhold these tests?

    Appellate courts are virtually blocked from considering innocence claims — that’s why it sometimes takes 20 years or more for innocent people to be exonerated. In California, we do not have an innocence commission dedicated to investigating innocence claims. The governor does have the power to order such investigations related to clemency and to obtain documents that have been denied to a person trying to prove his innocence. The judge assigned could oversee the testing of the items denied and conduct a wider investigation of the evidence.

    I now ask Gov. Gavin Newsom to use those powers in my case.

    Kevin Cooper, 61, is a Death Row inmate at San Quentin State Prison. He was convicted in 1985 of four murders that occurred in San Bernardino County.

    https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/...e-13559987.php
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  2. #32
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Kevin Cooper case: California Gov. Gavin Newsom orders more DNA testing

    CBS News

    Sacramento, Calif. -- California Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered additional DNA testing Friday on evidence that a death-row inmate says will prove his innocence in a 35-year-old murder case that has drawn national attention. Former Gov. Jerry Brown previously ordered testing of four pieces of evidence that condemned inmate Kevin Cooper says will show he was framed for the 1983 hatchet and knife killings of four people, including two children, in Chino Hills.

    Newsom expanded the testing to include a green button and hair, blood and fingernail scrapings from the victims.

    San Bernardino County District Attorney Jason Anderson said he, surviving son Joshua Ryen, and other family members are disappointed by Newsom's order, though the Democratic governor emphasized that he is taking no position on Cooper's guilt or innocence at this time.

    "Especially in cases where the government seeks to impose the ultimate punishment of death, I need to be satisfied that all relevant evidence is carefully and fairly examined," Newsom said in ordering the testing.

    In 2000, 17 years after the murders, "48 Hours'" Erin Moriarty first heard from Cooper, who told her he had been framed. She has been reporting the story ever since. Nearly 35 years later, Cooper maintains his innocence.

    "I cannot take responsibility for murders I did not commit," Cooper told Moriarty.

    Moriarty found in her reporting there was evidence pointing to another suspect and in testimony at trial it was learned that a sheriff's deputy destroyed it.

    When Diana Roper, now deceased, found bloody overalls belonging to her boyfriend, a man with a violent criminal history, she turned them in.

    "Wouldn't you say that taking in coveralls that appear to be covered in blood, not sending them to a lab and throwing them away before trial would be highly unusual?" Moriarty asked Floyd Tidwell, who was the sheriff at the time.

    "I don't know that that happened," Tidwell said. "I'm very vague on that."

    Other evidence points to the killers being white or Hispanic, Cooper's supporters say. A San Diego judge in 2011 blocked Cooper's request for a third round of DNA testing.

    The case also attracted national interest after New York Times' columnist Nicholas Kristof, U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris of California and reality television star Kim Kardashian urged officials to allow re-testing.

    Prosecutors say previous tests show Cooper, now 61, killed Doug and Peggy Ryen, their 10-year-old daughter Jessica and 11-year-old neighbor Christopher Hughes.

    They say the tests proved Cooper was in the Ryen's home and smoked cigarettes in the Ryen's stolen station wagon, and that Cooper's blood and the blood of at least one victim was on a T-shirt found by the side of a road leading away from the scene of the murders.

    "Unfortunately, over time it seems the victims' desire for justice in this case matters less and less," District Attorney Jason Anderson said in a statement. "Prior DNA testing that Mr. Cooper sought, agreed to and claimed would exonerate him have all confirmed Mr. Cooper's guilt and that Mr. Cooper's allegations of evidence tampering were unfounded."

    Cooper's attorney, Norman Hile, said the testing will likely take months, though the timing will be set by agreement between himself, prosecutors and the former judge Brown named to oversee the retesting.

    "We hope that this additional testing will lead to the exoneration of Kevin Cooper and revealing who killed the Ryens and Christopher Hughes," Hile said.

    Brown in December ordered the retesting of DNA on a tan T-shirt, orange towel, and a hatchet handle and sheath.

    Hile has said investigators planted his client's blood on the T-shirt. He says more sensitive DNA tests are now available that may show who wore the shirt. He contends that investigators also planted other evidence to frame his client, then a young black man who escaped from a prison east of Los Angeles two days before the slayings.

    Supporters of Cooper say other evidence, including untested hair samples, indicates there were multiple killers who are white or Hispanic.

    Newsom ordered the testing of hair samples collected from the victims' hands and the crime scene, as well as two blood samples and a green button that investigators say links Cooper to the crime and Hile says was planted.

    The goal is to see whose DNA is on the items, Newsom said. He noted, however, that multiple DNA from unknown contributors may have contaminated the evidence, given the age of the case and that items have been routinely handled by investigators and others.

    California hasn't executed anyone since 2006. A federal appellate court in San Francisco stayed Cooper's scheduled execution in 2004 and called for further review of the evidence, but his appeals have been rejected by the California and U.S. supreme courts.

    https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kevin-c...e-dna-testing/
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    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
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  3. #33
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Kim Kardashian visits death row inmate Kevin Cooper in San Quentin Prison

    By Paulina Dedaj
    Fox News

    Kim Kardashian went to California’s San Quentin State Prison Thursday as a part of her efforts to exonerate death row inmate Kevin Cooper.

    The "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" star took to Twitter Friday evening to share details about her meeting with Cooper, 61, who has remained on death row since his 1985 conviction.

    "I had an emotional meeting with Kevin Cooper yesterday at San Quentin’s death row," Kardashian captioned a picture of the two. "I found him to be thoughtful and honest and I believe he is innocent of the crimes for which he was convicted."

    In a seperate post, the 38-year-old added: "I am hopeful that Kevin will be exonerated since DNA testing has now been ordered on Kevin’s case and I remain grateful to Governor Newsom for ending capital punishment in California."

    TMZ exclusively reported Friday that the KKW Beauty mogul was pictured walking into the prison, dressed in all black, to meet with Cooper.

    Kardashian, whose recent campaign to have President Trump commute the life sentence of Alice Marie Johnson was successful, has taken an interest in further exonerating inmates involved in other controversial cases.

    She first spoke about Cooper in a tweet last October, where she encouraged former California Gov. Jerry Brown to re-test DNA in the case.

    Cooper claims he was framed for the 1983 murders of Doug and Peggy Ryen, their 10-year-old daughter Jessica and 11-year-old neighbor Christopher. The family and neighbor had been brutally attacked with multiple weapons, including a hatchet, knife and ice pick, while their 8-year-old son survived.

    In February, California Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered new DNA tests on certain items that were never tested during the initial investigation. California Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered new DNA tests on certain items that were never tested during the initial investigation.

    The order also suggested re-testing of some of the original evidence.

    As Cooper awaits the final DNA testing results, he will avoid execution as Newsom issued a moratorium for all executions back in March.

    https://www.foxnews.com/entertainmen...er-san-quentin
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  4. #34
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    KIM KARDASHIAN Pisses Off Victim's Mom

    COOPER'S GUILTY AND HE'S USING YOU!!!

    TMZ News

    Kim Kardashian's mission to help convicted murderer Kevin Cooper prove he's innocent is enraging the mother of one of his victims, who says Kim needs to read up on the mountain of evidence that shows Cooper is guilty as sin.

    Mary Ann Hughes tells TMZ she was disgusted to see Kardashian embracing death row inmate Cooper in photos -- "It makes me feel sick to my stomach and I pity her. For what she's doing to us, there's nothing to justify what she's doing to us, the immense pain she is causing us."

    She added, Kim "obviously has not read all of the actual evidence -- she has bought into half truths perpetrated by the defense. If she actually sat down and read the transcripts of all the trials and appeals, she would be sick to her stomach to be in the same room with him."

    Mary Ann's 11-year-old son, Christopher, was sleeping over at a neighbor's home in Chino Hills, CA back in 1983 when he was murdered. Cooper was convicted of using a hatchet to slay the neighbors, Doug and Peggy Ryen, their daughter Jessica and Christopher. The Ryens' 8-year-old son survived the attack.

    Kim has been on a remarkable mission -- alongside multiple high-powered attorneys -- to help non-violent drug offenders get early releases from prisons. She started with Alice Marie Johnson's release last year, and has successfully freed 17 more inmates in recent months.

    But, Mary Ann says Kardashian's on the wrong side this time and believes Cooper's attorneys "are using her for her reality show status because they can't use the truth to try to help Kevin Cooper. The truth just condemns him."

    As we reported, Kim went to visit Cooper at San Quentin prison on Thursday, and she's successfully lobbied California Governors Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom to order additional DNA testing in Cooper's case. Kim says she hopes the results will show Cooper is innocent. He's long maintained he was framed.

    Mary Ann says it's absurd for Kim to think the "pile of evidence" against Cooper was planted. She says he's "100 percent guilty and the evidence shows it. If you want the whole truth, read the 94 page document on the website of the San Bernardino County D.A." ... which was filed in response to Cooper's last attempt to win clemency.

    Mary Ann points out a woman who claims Cooper raped her in 1982 in Pennsylvania testified against him during the murder trial -- something she thinks Kim needs to know. "She portrays herself as being for women's rights and for the women's movement and yet she is supporting a rapist and a murderer."

    As for whether Mary Ann wants a chance to educate Kardashian on the case -- absolutely not. She says, Kim "has not reached out to us. I would not even want to talk to her. My opinion of her is about as low as it goes because of what she's putting my family through ... dragging this through the press on a non-stop basis."

    https://www.tmz.com/2019/06/02/kim-k...death-row-dna/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  5. #35
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    From the Archives: Kevin Cooper sentenced to death 35 years ago

    Thirty-five years ago, Kevin Cooper was sentenced to death in a San Diego courtroom for murdering four people in Chino Hills in 1983 after escaping from the California Institute for Men where he was serving time for burglary.

    The trial had been moved to San Diego County because of extensive publicity about the case in San Bernardino County. Cooper, who has continued to deny his involvement in the murders, is currently on death row at San Quentin Prison. His case continues to draw intense scrutiny.

    From The [San Diego] Tribune, Wednesday, May 15, 1985:

    Kevin Cooper sentenced to death in Chino killings

    By Mike Konon, Tribune Staff Writer

    Kevin Cooper sentenced to death in Chino killings Prison escapee Kevin Cooper today was sentenced to die in the San Quentin gas chamber for the 1983 murders of four people in a Chino Hills home.

    San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge Richard C. Garner affirmed the recommendation of a San Diego County Superior Court jury that Cooper should die for the slayings of three members of the Douglas Ryen family and a visiting neighbor boy in the Ryens’ home on June 4, 1983.

    A six-man, six-woman jury deliberated 5 1/2 days before finding Cooper guilty Feb. 19 on four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder.

    Cooper, 27, was convicted of the murders of Douglas and Peg Ryen, both 41; their daughter, Jessica, 10, and a neighbor, Christopher Hughes, 11, in the Ryen home. The attacks came two days after Cooper’s escape from a minimum-security area of Chino State Prison.

    Cooper was also convicted of attempting to murder the Ryens’ son, Joshua, 10, who survived a throat slashing, skull fracture and knife wounds.

    The same jury deliberated 3 1/2 days before recommending the death penalty rather than life in prison without the possibility of parole.

    In denying a motion by Cooper for a new trial, Garner commented: “It strains my imagination to believe that anyone else could have done it. I am convinced beyond any reasonable doubt that Cooper was the murderer.”

    Cooper remained impassive during the hearing.

    Cooper’s attorney, David Negus, said Cooper had wished to make a statement but was remaining silent on his advice.

    “Cooper wanted to say that he was innocent of the crime,” Negus said. “He maintains his innocence.”

    The survivors of two of the murdered persons did address the court.

    “My son deserved to live more than 11 1/2 years,” said Mary Ann Hughes, her voice choked with emotion.

    “Kevin Cooper has a history of escaping when he is put away. I don’t know if we want revenge, but if Kevin Cooper is put to death some other little boy is going to live more than 11 1/2 years.”

    Mary Howell, mother of Peg Ryen, said she would prefer that Cooper be sentenced to life without any possibility of parole. “I would like to see him put in the prison population with no protection and let the prisoners take care of him,” she said.

    Because Cooper was sentenced to death, an immediate appeal will be filed on his behalf.

    Both Hughes and Howell expressed disappointment in the lengthy process of trials and appeals.

    “We really feel bitter about all this. The system has failed us,” Hughes said. “The Ryens and Chris were killed in a way less humane than what we use to kill animals.”

    “My grandson and I feel a lot of anger. Why did Kevin Cooper go up the hill and kill four people?” Howell said.

    “With people like (Chief Justice) Rose Bird and others on the state Supreme Court, there are 183 cases to hear. At the present rate it will take until the year 2010 to hear his (Cooper’s) case.

    Only one person, Rev. Frederick Bradford from Los Angeles, spoke in defense of Cooper. Bradford told Garner:

    “I feel he is innocent. The investigation was not handled properly. He (Cooper) happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I feel justice has not been served. I don’t feel that one person could have killed all those people.”

    Garner said he had heard that Bradford had made statements that Cooper had not received a fair trial, and indicated he was angered by that suggestion.

    “I believe he got a fair trial, he had his day in court,” Garner said. “He was represented by an excellent attorney. Few people in our society, certainly not me, could have afforded the representation he received.”

    Following the verdict, Presiding Judge Donald W. Smith ordered the courthouse corridor cleared of news reporters conducting interviews with participants in the case. Smith noted that the cluster of people and cameras was blocking the busy corridor leading to the court’s primary criminal departments.

    During the trial, San Bernardino County District Attorney Dennis Kottmeier produced evidence to show that Cooper had hidden out in a vacant home within sight of the Ryen home after his escape from prison. Kottmeier also maintained that a hatchet found in the vacant home had been one of the weapons used in the attack on the Ryens and the Hughes boy.

    Cooper, in his testimony during the trial, admitted escaping from prison and hiding in the Chino Hills home near the Ryen house, but denied involvement in the slayings, claiming he hitchhiked away from Chino Hills the night before the slayings.

    Kottmeier argued that Cooper killed the Ryens to steal their car for use in getting away from the Chino area. The Ryen car was found in the Long Beach area days after the killings.

    Cooper became a suspect in the killings shortly after the discovery of the bodies by the Hughes boy’s father June 4, 1983. Cooper became the target of a massive search on both sides of the border.

    Cooper testified that after his escape he worked his way to Ensenada, where he worked on a fishing boat. He was captured after a Santa Barbara woman identified him as the man who raped her and told police that he had been working on the fishing boat.

    Cooper’s trial, which began in October 1984, was shifted from San Bernardino County to San Diego County because of extensive publicity about the murders in the San Bernardino area.

    During the trial, Negus claimed that Cooper had been used as a scapegoat by the San Bernardino sheriff’s office, which was under public pressure to solve the killings.

    Negus pointed out that the only survivor, Joshua Ryen, had given varied descriptions of the attackers to sheriff’s investigators, including statements that three white men or three Mexicans had attacked the family. Cooper is a black man.

    https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com...ed-to-death-35
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  6. #36
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On September 16, 2020, oral argument will be heard before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in the case of Kevin Cooper v. Edmund Brown, Jr. - An appeal from the district court's denial of a motion to intervene brought by District Attorneys of San Bernardino, Riverside, and San Mateo Counties in an action by condemned California inmates contending California's death penalty procedures violate the Eighth Amendment.

    https://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/calenda...4-18&year=2020

  7. #37
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    The panel was made up of Judges Fletcher (Clinton), Hunsaker (Trump) and VanDyke (Trump).

    https://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/calenda...2-24&year=2020

  8. #38
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    Kevin Cooper: Surviving Death Row and COVID-19 in San Quentin

    An Exclusive Interview

    I interviewed long-time death-row prisoner, Kevin Cooper in San Quentin, on August 18th. Cooper is now a double survivor of death-row and Covid19. My Flashpoints Radio Team did some of the key research that helped to rescue Cooper in 2004 when he was exactly 3 hours 47 minutes from a California state-sponsored murder.

    Cooper has been incarcerated for over 37 years (35 years on death Row) for the murder of the Ryan family and child guest Christopher Hughes, a brutal crime he doggedly maintains he did not commit. Currently, having exhausted appeals through the courts, Kevin is requesting that Governor Newsom order an innocence investigation to consider all the evidence that points to others and exonerates Kevin Cooper. Gov. Newsom has ordered DNA testing which has almost been completed at this time.

    Quoting from a letter from Norman Hile, Kevin’s lawyer, to Gov. Newsom on July 6, 2020:

    “The current profound awakening in California and the US as a whole to the systematic racism that affects Black lives every day is a clarion call to examine, under a bright light, the racism that drove the investigation, prosecution, and conviction of Kevin Cooper. The murder of George Floyd, and of so many other Black men, by racist law enforcement has brought us to a moment where the State of California can no longer look away. It is time to finally provide Kevin Cooper with a meaningful opportunity to prove his innocence.

    “It is undeniable that racism was the driving factor in the SBSD’s [San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department] investigation and framing of Mr. Cooper and in the SBCDA’s prosecution and conviction of him. Racism drove this case from the moment the SBSD became aware of Mr. Cooper and continued unabated until he was tried, convicted and sentenced to death.”

    Dennis Bernstein: We are joined, from San Quentin Prison, Death Row, by Kevin Cooper. Kevin, it is good to talk to you again. It’s been too long.

    Kevin Cooper: Thank you, Dennis. Thank you for welcoming me back. I’m glad to be back. It’s been a long time.

    DB: Been a long time, and we are glad that we are still talking. But let’s come in this door. We have seen the invasion of -19. The prisons have been the petri dish. I understand, not only did you have to face off with Death Row, you had to face off with COVID-19. How are you doing? And what’s it like there, in terms of the disease?

    KC: Personally, I’m doing well. I do believe I did have COVID-19, but I recovered from it. It’s hell on earth, just like it’s always been. It’s just a double dose of it. We inmates are trying to do the best that we can, to survive, as we’ve always done. But like I said, it’s a double dose, now.

    DB: Kevin, the Flashpoints show has been on this case for many years. One of our producers, Leslie Kean, former producer here, did a lot of work on the case. We care a great deal about it. You’re in this battle for a long time. Can I ask you, what keeps you going? After all these years, how come you’re able to continue to struggle for an exoneration? Is that because you’re innocent?

    KC: My innocence is what keeps me going. I mean, that is my motivating factor. And that’s all I know. I just keep goin’ and keep goin’ and keep goin’. I can’t stop. If I stop, they win. And I don’t want them to win. So, I keep going.

    DB: We know that you’re in a battle now with the Governor of California. You are calling for an Innocence Investigation. What is an Innocence Investigation?

    KC: Correct.

    DB: What does that mean? Tell us about that and what the Governor’s position is, at this point.

    KC: Innocence Investigation is exactly what it says. They investigate the innocence claims that are in my case. I am no longer dead in the court system, because the court system has rubber stamped me through it. And every time I went to the court, they denied me. But yet I have all these Constitutional violations. I have no less than six Brady Violations, and one is enough to get you a new trial. And I have no less than 6.

    And for people who don’t know what a Brady Violation is, it’s when the State willingly or unknowingly withholds material, exculpatory evidence from the defense, evidence that can prove a person’s innocence.

    So, they did that, six times. They destroyed evidence, they planted evidence, they lied about witnesses. They did all types of stuff that they have historically done to people like me, in situations like this. And so, we’re tryin’ to get all this exposed, in a hearing. And if we do that, then I’ll get out. I have no doubt about that. So, we’re not in a battle with the Governor. We’re waiting for this final DNA testing to get done so that he can decide whether or not to give it to me. And if he does give it to me, we all believe that they’ll get me out, my legal team.

    DB: Wow. It’s been a long, hard struggle. Kevin, I wanna ask you to step back a little bit and talk about your response to Black Lives Matter. Black lives in the prison, what does that look like? And has that given you any extra support, in your battle for freedom?

    Recording: This call and your telephone number will be monitored and recorded.

    KC: Yes, and because I read, study, and understand our history of Black people in America, I understand that every generation has had some type of organization or people to come and fight for our humanity, our human rights, because we can’t have any other type rights, civil rights, or any other type rights, unless we first have human rights. And so, at this point in time in our history, it’s Black Lives Matter.

    But before them, you can see it was the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. And before them, you can say it was SNCC, Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. Or you could say it was the Urban League or CORE, Congress of Racial Equality, or the SCLC, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, that Martin Luther King was a part of. Or you could even say it was Malcolm X and the [inaudible] relations that he was after. And before that, Marcus Garvey, and all through that, A. Philip Randolph. So, my point is, you can go all the way back to Frederick Douglass and before him. And we’ve always had people or organizations to fight for us. And right now, it’s Black Lives Matter, because Black lives do matter. They haven’t mattered throughout the history of this country, but they matter, now.

    And we are makin’ these people accountable, even with this death penalty, which I have experienced and wouldn’t have really experienced, if they had executed me, in 2004, when I came within 3 hours and 42 minutes of being strapped down to that gurney and burned alive from the inside, with those poisonous,lethal injection drugs. So, we understand that this criminal justice system, how unjust it is, from the back end, where I’m at, to the front end, where George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and everybody else was at, when they got murdered.

    So, we need Black Lives Matter, not just as an organization that protests on the street. But we need that mentality to come up here in this criminal justice system. We need that mentality to get up there in Washington DC in Congress and in the United States Senate and in the White House, where those people, up in there, understand that Black lives matter.

    DB: What’s ‘good trouble’, to you? What does that phrase mean, to you? ‘Making good trouble’?

    KC: Doing what I’m doing, what I have been doing, what I have been doin’, since I’ve met you and Leslie Kean, a long time ago. What I — what Mumia Abu Jamal was doing and what every other person is doing, what Angela Davis is doing, and what Black Lives Matter is doing, what — you know, making good trouble. Don’t let things stay as, quote, unquote, “normal”. Because when things are normal, when we get murdered, when we get discriminated against, you know? People do all types of foul things to us, when things are normal.

    So, we can’t let things be normal, because we’re tired of suffering under normal circumstances. We have to make good trouble, to make people see that their normal is our pain and suffering. And we’re tired of suffering and having pain, because of them. So, we must ‘Get up, get into it, and get involved’, using the words of James Brown. We must! That’s what gettin’ in good trouble means, to me. Good trouble is no longer sitting down and being silenced, because silence is betrayal. It really is! Bein’ complicit is givin’ the other side to go ahead to keep on whippin’ our ass. People are shooting us. People keep their knee on our neck. We can no longer — I mean, we really couldn’t do it, before, and a lot of us have always fought back. But we really can’t stand it, now, because now, we have more people understanding that their plight in this country is right alongside ours. That’s why you see so many poor people — poor white people, Latino people, Native American people, involved in this movement, right now. That’s what makes it different than any movement, before. They can no longer afford to sit on the sidelines.

    DB: What do you think about the expanding White Power movement? We have a serial white supremacist in the White House, and he has opened up the door and given the go-ahead for folks to, shall we say, ‘express themselves’. I’m wondering what you think about — what’s your reaction to this new White Power movement, where you can — where a vigilante can walk down the street in Kenosha and shoot people, after having a conversation with the Sheriff and getting some water and encouragement? Your thoughts on the White Power movement?

    KC: Well, I look at it this way, Dennis. There’s always been a White Power movement in America, always. It ain’t never went nowhere. Never! The only thing that’s different now, between then and now, is the fact that you have a guy in the White House, and he brought people out from behind the closet door, out of the woods, out of their sheets, and all of that stuff. They’re out in the open, more so, now, than ever since the 1960s or ‘50s or ‘40s. So, I honestly believe that these people, who are sick in the head like that, they’re never gonna change. Not the majority of ‘em. So, we just have to keep going and keep fighting and keep building’, regardless of what they do.

    See, in my mind, it’s not about what they do. It’s about what we do. We’re not gonna stand there and let us — let them just dog us out. We gotta stand up and get in good trouble. But there’s always been and will always be a White Power movement in America, because America was founded on –

    Recording: You have 60 seconds remaining.

    KC: And this racism that America was founded on has not left, and it will not leave. There have always been Black people or Black organizations, who have always stood up and fought for us.

    On the other side of the coin, since the coins are — do have two sides, there’s always been those who have been opposed to us. But we’re not in this country today because of those people, those white supremacists and those white supremacist presidents, like Trump and Woodrow Wilson and Reagan and W. Bush and H.W. Bush and — you know, I can keep going, all the way down the line. Even, some degree, Clinton. No. We’re not here — still here because of them. We’re still here, in spite of them, despite them, you know what I’m sayin’? Because we keep fighting.

    My mentality, and I’m in a prison where white supremacy is in here, white supremacists, and they — and officers. And I know that, but — in that court system that I’m in, there’s white supremacy. But we don’t care what they do, to a degree, because it’s not about what they do. It’s about what we do. And that’s how I see white supremacy. It’s there. It’s gonna – it’s always been here. It’s always gonna be there. It’s always gonna be here. We just gotta keep on fighting’. And if we fight long enough and hard enough, eventually, we’re gonna win. We are! We are! That’s what I believe. Dennis, I say this, in all due respect and all due truth. If I had not been fighting all these years in this white supremacist criminal justice system, these people would’ve tortured and murdered me, in 2004. The only reason why I’m alive today is because I fought, and a whole bunch of other people fought against this white supremacist criminal justice system and proved that they were wrong and that they framed me. Now, I’m still stuck here, on this modern-day plantation, in this Death Row Section, but it’s not like [laughs] – I’m dead. And as long as I’m alive, there’s a chance I can get out. So, we keep fighting.

    DB: Kevin, the situation in — in —Death Row there and in the prison at San Quentin has really been a very terrible scourge, and it was caused by the system, the same white supremacist system, wasn’t it?

    KC: It’s my understanding that this COVID-19 virus got here in this prison because one prison, who had infected inmates down in Southern California, transported ‘em all the way up here to Northern California and some of ‘em here. And the rest took on a life of its own. I mean, the coronavirus spread throughout this prison, and a lot of people died. And I think 26 inmates died. Half of ‘em, or a little less than half, were on Death Row, you know? And that happened because these people in this system — now, I can’t say all of ‘em. I’m not gonna whitewash all of ‘em like that, but the majority of ‘em, they don’t give a damn about us people. You know? They don’t. Because if they did, common sense would’ve told ‘em not to do nothin’ like that. But they don’t use common sense. You know? They don’t use things that you and I would use. They do things that they know is gonna mess with people, because that’s what they do. They mess with us. They mess with us mentally, emotionally, psychologically, spiritually, physically —

    Recording: This call and your telephone number will be monitored and recorded.

    KC:—and any other type way they can mess with us. That’s what they do, because they’re oppressors. Oppressors don’t give a damn about the people they’re oppressing. And whatever they did, they didn’t do it for those inmates’ best interests. They didn’t have their best interests at heart. And so, we’re stuck in the situation that we’re in. I think that things are getting better, but I can’t tell, because I’m stuck in this cage. I don’t know.

    DB: What does the medical care system look like, inside the prison? Were they up for this? Were they up for this outbreak?

    KC: No. They were not. I mean, historically, healthcare in prison systems around this country, and especially in the state of California, have notoriously been bad, the worst in the world, in some cases. And in this state, even in this prison, has been under a Federal court order. It’s been monitored to get it right, because inmates were dyin’ from preventable deaths, because the healthcare system was bad. Now, when this coronavirus broke out, no. Nobody was ready for it, not the inmates, not the officials, not the officers, you know, because some of them, I mean, a lot of them got sick. One of ‘em, I know, died, and he was a good officer. You know?

    But it’s just — it just happened. But those of us who were in here, behind enemy lines, we took the brunt of the pandemic. We were the worst off. We suffered the most. And our families are still sufferin’, Dennis, because they won’t let us have contact visits. They won’t even let us have visits through the glass, video visits, or no type visits, you know? We don’t — I haven’t seen anybody since, I believe, January. Not my attorneys, not my family, not my friends, nobody. So, this is not good for us.

    DB: But this is the nature of the system, that that’s how they attempt to keep prisoners powerless, right, to cut them off from the source of love, energy and support. Wouldn’t you say that’s a part of prison treatment?

    KC: Yeah. That’s true. I mean, if it wasn’t for these telephones. And in truth, they took the telephones away from us during this pandemic, for a couple weeks, because they said they were afraid that we would get coronavirus from the telephones, even though they were wiping ‘em down with this very powerful disinfectant called Cell Block, which they pass out just to clean these cages. And they use it in the showers, because it’s supposed to kill coronavirus. But nonetheless, they wouldn’t give us the phones.

    So, we found out later that the reason why they wouldn’t give us the phones, because certain inmates were calling the news media and telling them what was going on in here. They were talking to their family members and telling their family members, and their family members were in turn talking’ to the news media and exposing’ all this stuff that was happening’ to us in here. So, therefore, these people decided to take the phones from us. But we finally got ‘em back, but it’s just the principle of the thing. Yeah. They don’t care about us. They don’t care about our families. They don’t care about nothin’, man. These are oppressors. Oppressors don’t care about us, man. They don’t care about our families.

    They all — you know. They just don’t. Just not into — this is a money-making machine. This is a business, the business of death, the business of imprisonment, the business of modern-day enslavement, you know?

    That’s what this is. It’s a business. And they can say — what’s the saying? ‘It ain’t nothin’ personal. It’s business.’ And that’s the mentality that these people have. It’s business! So what, you don’t get to see your family? Don’t worry about it. It’s business! It ain’t nothin’ personal.

    But in the men’s eyes, it is personal, because without our families, man, a lot of us don’t have nothin’. Our families is what keeps us alive and keeps us going, that love that we have, that connection that we have, that commitment that we have, or that responsibility that we have to each other.

    Recording: This call and your telephone number will be monitored and recorded.

    KC: That’s one of the strongest things that we have, that keeps us not just alive, as far as on a physical level, but on an emotional level, or on a mental level, on a psychological level.

    DB: Kevin Cooper — we’re speaking with Kevin Cooper, at San Quentin Prison. He’s on Death Row. We’re talking about — really, what we’re talking about, the fact that there’s an opportunity now, after all these years of struggling to get the truth out about Kevin’s case, he’s got tremendous support from the Innocence Project, from several sections of it. And they’re now moving to have the Governor open up the door for an Innocence Investigation. We are delighted and really honored to be speaking with Kevin, on Death Row. It’s been a long road for us, and I wanna ask you, Kevin, has your case — do you think your case has helped to call attention to other cases, other innocence cases, and also, on the struggle to abolish the Death Penalty?

    KC: In truth, I cannot answer that question. I don’t know if my case has had that type of impact on the criminal justice system. But I do know that it has had a positive impact on everybody who learns the truth about this case. You know? From the United Nations, to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, former Judges on the California Supreme Court, certain Governors from Texas and Louisiana, and a whole slew of other people have found out about this case. And they have stood up and said, ‘No, man, you can’t do this. We support this guy. We want this man to have a Innocence Investigation’, because the evidence has all been disproven, that they used to convict me.

    So, it’s just a matter of us gettin’ the opportunity to show our side in a open forum, that the criminal justice system denied me, for all these years. And if they do that, if I get that from Governor Newsom, and like I said earlier, we believe that I’ll get outta here. Now, if I get outta here, that does not — that does not mean that I will be free. Excuse me. What that means is, I will no longer be on this modern-day plantation, because freedom — true freedom, without equality, there’s no freedom, at all. So, I understand, you know, that — if I get outta here, I will be in a status of a second-class citizen, or something like that.

    I will continue the work that other “second-class citizens” have done in this country, to help make this country better, such as John Lewis, who got in good trouble, such as Malcolm X, such as Martin Luther King, Jr., and Stokely Carmichael and Ella Baker, and a whole bunch of other people, who’s too many for me to name in this brief conversation. But they were considered second-class citizens, when they took it on them — on themselves to fight back. So, I will be out there on the front line, along with my brothers and sisters that struggle, fighting to bring this crime against humanity to an end. I will be definitely workin’ for all of us and fighting for our human rights, because it’s important for my wellbeing to know that I belong and that I am part of this struggle.

    DB: Kevin, it’s like you were given [laughs] — it was an attempt at a — sort of a multiple death sentence. If they don’t kill you in the — in the killing chamber, they’re gonna kill you with COVID. But in that regard, we — you know, when we talk about Black Lives Matter — Black and Brown Lives Matter, Indigenous Lives Matter, this goes far beyond the prison, in terms of the racism that really comes up — being brought up by the pandemic and how different people are much more vulnerable than others. You wanna talk about how racism comes into it, through the economy, through the economics of it?

    KC: I just recently wrote a essay and called “Disproportionate Blues”, which was about how African Americans and Native Americans and Latino Americans are disproportionately affected by this coronavirus pandemic.

    And this is our history, in our country. This is why Black people invented the Blues, so — because they had to find some way to express themselves about the horrendous conditions, from healthcare, to jobs, to housing or lack thereof, to everything else that we were facing in this country.

    This is why the Blues was invented. So, if you fast forward all the way up to date and all that time in between, while things have changed for certain people — for certain people, for those same certain people of a lower class, things have not changed all that much, from redlining to where a person can or cannot live, to the type of schools their children can or cannot go to, to the type of jobs that a person can or cannot get, because of their education. These things all play a part in why coronavirus is affecting us. The Policies of this country have made it so that healthcare is not a human right. They don’t wanna give us healthcare. They want money. Everything’s about money, in this capitalistic society. And so, if you cannot afford to pay for healthcare, then, therefore, you do without it. And when you do without it, oh, well, you find out what happens when cases like coronavirus come around. So, we all, who are poor people in this country, are catchin’ hell. So, some Black people are escapin’ this, because they have money. But the ones that don’t, we’re in trouble. And it’s — it’s a historical fact. So, when people say, ‘Times have changed’, to a degree, they have. But to a larger degree, they have not, because racism — it’s like when they build a building, when they build a courthouse or they build a hospital, it’s like they have racism in the — in the cement, right? So, it’s like institutional racism. It’s all up in there.

    And it affects it so much that it’s killing us. They don’t kill us one way, Dennis, they kill us another way. Or they put us in a position to kill ourselves. And then, they say it’s our fault. It’s our fault for having high blood pressure. It’s our fault for bein’ obese. It’s our fault that we live in food deserts. It’s our fault that we have to eat processed food. It’s our fault that we live in rat and roach-infested apartment buildings.

    Everything’s our fault! But no, man, it ain’t our fault. It’s the system’s fault. But yet, we pay the price.

    DB: You’re listening to Flashpoints, on Pacifica Radio. Again, we’re speaking with Kevin Cooper, on Death Row. And Kevin is in a battle towards exoneration. He has the — he’s calling for an Innocence Investigation to be granted by Governor Newsom of California. We’re keeping a very close eye on that as well. Kevin, can I ask you, what — what are some of your favorite books? What are you reading, now?

    KC: I just finished reading “Caste”, by Isabel Wilkerson. And before that, I read James Baldwin’s “The Fire Next Time”. I’m getting ready to read, because I just received, “Freedom Is a Constant Struggle”, by Angela Davis. And, you know, I do a lot of reading. I read a lot of books, you know. So, I’m always reading about this struggle that we are in, this historic struggle that we’re in. And it helps me to better understand my situation, why that I’m in here, and they know I’m innocent, but yet, I’m still in here, goin’ on 40 years. You know? Because innocence makes no difference in America. They don’t give a damn about killin’ innocent people on the front end of this criminal justice system or the back end of this criminal justice system or fixin’ it all in between.

    So, they give us these draconian sentences of 100 years or 200 —

    Recording: This call and your telephone number will be monitored and recorded.

    KC: — so, when I read all these books, and I understand this historic struggle that we’re in, it gives me not just knowledge and not just a better understanding, but a will not to succumb to my circumstance. You know?

    It keeps me — these books that I read keep my back straight. Because as Martin Luther King, Jr., said, ‘They can’t ride your back, if your back is not bent over.’ You know? So, it’s like, reading, to me — and I guess it could be for everybody. Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. So, I love to read, and I’m thankful for all the people who send me books.

    DB: Are you – have you always been a reader? Were you a reader, as a kid?

    KC: Oh, hell, no. I was stuck on stupid, as a kid. I didn’t know the first thing about books, when I was a kid. I grew up thinking that white people were the greatest thing on earth. I mean, I was all messed up. I was uneducated and miseducated. I didn’t know too much about nothin’. You know? And that’s why I put myself in the position for those devils to get their hands on me, and they did the rest.

    Because — and that’s another reason why I testified in my own behalf at trial, because I was so naďve, so stupid, so believin’ in this rotten-ass system. I said, ‘If I get up on this witness stand and tell the truth, they’re gonna believe me, and they’re gonna let me go.’ When I got up on the witness stand, and I told the truth, they did not shake my story. They did not change my story. They did not prove that I was lyin’. And yet, still, the jury found me guilty. Yeah. So, no. When I was a child, man, I — no, I was all messed up. But I’m not messed up, no more. And that’s the good thing about it. I’ve learned.

    DB: Still learning, right? And how many books are you allowed to have in your — in your cell? Do you have a little library there, or do you — can you keep your favorite books?

    KC: Oh, first — all right. First, let me — I mean you no disrespect, all right? I gotta correct you on that. This is not my cell, right? If it’s anybody, it’s the taxpayers’ cell. This is a cage, that I’m forced to live in, against my will. I will never — claim this as mine. Nothing in this joint is mine.

    But in this cage that I’m in, I’m allowed to have 10 books. So, I’m always sendin’ books out and gettin’ new books sent in. But you know — but it’s good, because the books that I send out, I send to people who share ‘em with other people, especially youngsters, so they can gain knowledge.

    DB: Books are crucial, behind bars. That’s for sure. I remember teaching in Rikers Island, and I had a book of poems by Etheridge Knight that I lent to one student in my class at Rikers. And it was a little dog-eared, it was a little ripped up, it came back all beautifully taped together, all nicely re-put together, and I — with a little note saying, ‘Hey, Teach, this book is too important to let unravel here. So, take better care [laughs] of your books.’

    KC: [laughs] Right. And I even had your book up in here, you know? And so, I thank you for sending it to me. [Follow the Money] I forgot to mention that, you know? All the interviews that you did and — over the years, and you even have my interview in there, after I came back from that near-death experience, in 2004. So, that — you know, and it’s up in here. So, I thank you for that.

    DB: Well, I — well, I’m happy to hear that. I really am. And of course, it’s really good to speak with you. I wanna give you a chance. I’d like to open the mic, and why don’t you — what would you like to talk about? What have I forgotten to ask you? I’m gonna — we’re gonna end by, you know, how people can find out more information about your case. But before that, what — what did I miss? What did we miss?

    KC: Dennis, you didn’t miss too much of nothin’, because this is real life, and everything is continuing to grow, continuing to move. And I’m still here. The struggle is most definitely here, and it’s not gonna —

    Recording: This call and your telephone number will be monitored and recorded.

    KC: — the struggle, this movement, is not going away, because they’re growing stronger. And so, I’m gonna continue to do my part, as everybody in my life, who is in my life, I mean, really in my life is, because if they weren’t, they would no longer be in my life or part of what I do. I think we’re good. I really do. Considering the type of circumstance that I’m in, and what we have to go through, to make this phone call and all that, yeah. We’re good. We handled our business. And I thank you for allowing me to speak on your program.

    DB: Well, it’s an honor. And we all are learning together. And I have to ask you the final question. How can people, if they want, get more background? How can they help? How can they let the Governor know that they might want to see Kevin Cooper walk out of those — through those prison gates, into the [laughs] –—the larger — I guess we could say, the larger prison that’s now being run by a white supremacist [laughs] in the White House? How can people learn more?

    KC: [laughs] Well, anybody who is very interested in my case and situation, they can go to kevincooper.org and learn about my case and a lot of the people and organizations who have supported me. They can go to my other website, freekevincooper.org. My Facebook page is currently bein’ redone, but I do have a Facebook page. Actually, that’s freekevincooper. And if anybody really wanted to take that extra step, they could also write the Governor and ask him to grant me an Innocence Investigation.

    And for whatever reason that they can find out why I’m on one of these websites with ‘em, because —

    Recording: You have 60 seconds remaining.

    KC:— I have the support of the people, then I’m good. And I do have support of a lot of people. But you can never have too much. So, with that said, and I thank you so much. And I wish everybody at KPFA well, and all of you stay safe and virus-free.

    DB: All right. Well, I want you to come back. Maybe next time, we could do this at KPFA, if the — if we don’t have the virus, and we don’t have the virus of that prison. Maybe we can look eye to eye, and —

    Maybe we can look eye to eye, and and have the next conversation together. Thank you, Kevin.

    KC: You got my word, that’ll happen. Thank you.

    (source: counterpunch.org)
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  9. #39
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Related:

    Ninth Circuit denies bid by California DAs to challenge death penalty moratorium

    District attorneys from three counties in California did not have the authority to challenge a moratorium on the death penalty enacted by Governor Gavin Newsom in 2019

    By Matthew Renda
    Courthouse News Service

    In a divided opinion, a Ninth Circuit panel upheld a lower court decision that prevented a group of district attorneys from intervening in a case where Governor Gavin Newsom stayed all executions in the state of California via executive order.

    “The district attorneys have no authority to choose the method by which California will execute condemned inmates,” U.S. Circuit Judge William Fletcher, a Bill Clinton appointee, wrote for the majority. “California law does not authorize the district attorneys to defend the state against constitutional challenges to execution protocols."

    U.S. Circuit Judge Lawrence VanDyke dissented, saying the district attorneys are trying to uphold California law.

    “The district attorneys would uphold and seek to help enforce Proposition 66 to retain the death penalty — on which a majority of the voters of California voted “Yes” — while the attorney general must defend the governor’s contrary executive order instituting a moratorium on death penalty executions,” the Donald Trump appointee wrote.

    Fellow Trump appointee U.S. Circuit Judge Danielle Forrest dissented from the majority opinion regarding mootness.

    District attorneys from San Bernardino, San Mateo and Riverside counties sought to intervene in a federal lawsuit challenging California’s lethal injection protocols in 2018. A federal judge denied their request that same year, finding they failed to establish separate interests not adequately represented by the California Attorney General’s Office.

    In March 2019, California Governor Gavin Newsom enacted a moratorium on executions, citing his belief that capital punishment is morally wrong. In August 2020, the state reached an agreement with death row inmates to dismiss the case without prejudice while the moratorium on executions stays in place.

    In their motions to intervene, each district attorney cited their interests in ensuring capital punishment is carried out for criminals sentenced to death in their counties.

    This comes after a California state court refused to consider the ALCU’s claim that California law bars local district attorneys from taking part in a legal dispute about execution procedures in cases they protected. But Thursday's ruling upheld a previous decision that held the district attorneys in question did not have the authority to challenge Newsom’s moratorium.

    “The district attorneys point to no legislative authorization granting them the authority to represent the state’s interest in this case,” Fletcher wrote.

    There are currently 706 inmates on death row in California, including 683 male inmates and 23 female inmates.

    The San Bernardino District Attorney’s Office argued it has an interest in ensuring Kevin Cooper is executed for the 1983 murder of the Ryen family. The DA’s office called it a “brutal hatchet murder” in which mother, father, 10-year-old daughter and an 11-year-old boy from a neighboring home were slaughtered. The family’s 8-year-old son had his throat slashed but survived.

    Cooper was convicted in 1985, but recent DNA test results show an unknown person was present at the crime scene and witnesses have come forward to say another suspect had bragged about killing the family. Cooper has maintained his innocence for more than three decades.

    The motion to intervene was filed when Michael Ramos led the San Bernardino District Attorney’s Office from 2002 to 2019. He lost an election to the county’s current DA, Jason Anderson, in 2018.

    In 2019, Anderson said he was disappointed in Governor Newsom’s decision to require more DNA testing in the Kevin Cooper case, saying “it seems the victims’ desire for justice in this case matters less and less.”

    Riverside County District Attorney Michael Hestrin, who has been in office since 2015, also sought to intervene in the lawsuit. He argued his office has an interest in ensuring that Albert Greenwood Brown is executed for the 1980 rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl. Brown was scheduled to be executed in September 2010, but a federal judge stayed the execution due to concerns that the lethal injection procedure might subject him to an agonizing death.

    Hestrin also cited the case of Ronald Lee Deere, a man convicted of the 1982 murder of a father and his two daughters, ages 2 and 7. The state currently has 92 inmates on death row who were convicted of capital crimes in Riverside County.

    San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe, who has served as DA since 2011, insisted his office has an interest in ensuring executions are carried out for Robert Green Fairbank Jr., convicted of the 1985 rape and murder of a female college student, and Anthony John Sully, convicted of murdering five women and one man during a six-month “killing spree” in 1983.

    Notwithstanding the debate over local prosecutors' interest in the outcome of litigation over lethal injection protocols, the ACLU and its co-petitioners say their interference in the lawsuit violates state law.

    “These DAs are rogue actors who seek to ignore the Constitution and create their own rules,” ACLU of Northern California attorney Emi MacLean said in a statement Friday. “Their lawlessness cannot stand.”

    Groups joining the ACLU in its First Appellate District petition include Congregations Organized for Prophetic Engagement, Riverside All of Us Or None, Starting Over Inc., and Silicon Valley De-Bug.

    https://www.courthousenews.com/ninth...ty-moratorium/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  10. #40
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    State of California’s petition for en banc rehearing denied by the Ninth Circuit.

    https://law.justia.com/cases/federal...022-03-02.html
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