Kevin Cooper, an innocent man in death row, is set to be executed.
Photo from nbcnews.com
For 33 years, Kevin Cooper – convicted for the brutal massacre of Douglas and Peggy Ryen, their 10-year-old daughter Jessica Ryen, and 11-year-old visiting neighbor Christopher Hughes; has been spending his time behind bars, with 31 of those years spent inside the San Quentin’s State Prison Death Row.
Sentenced in 1985, two years after the gruesome murder, Cooper was recommended to be executed by a group of jurors, which San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge Richard Garner green-lighted via gas chamber.
On the run, having escaped from a minimum security prison at the time of the killings, Cooper was found by the police hiding in a nearby home close to where the murder happened. And, probably because he was a convicted African-American on the run from the law, the authorities got fixated on him that he was the one who committed the crime – making sure that Cooper would pay for it, despite some evidence that says otherwise.
As it turns out, Kevin Cooper is reportedly innocent. A statement from a young Josh Ryen, then eight years old who was also there but managed to survive the ordeal, claims exactly that after he said that he saw three men of either Caucasian or Latino race when his family was being murdered. That statement would be backed by forensic evidence that would later reveal that the unidentified blood that was found at the crime scene, in fact, belonged to two different people. Therefore, it wasn’t Cooper’s.
Despite this fact, the scheduled execution would still be on as planned after numerous appeals from Cooper’s defense team failed. The only one who can save Cooper now is California Governor Jerry Brown after his team submitted a clemency petition in light of the evidence that proves Cooper’s innocence.
According to Texas attorney and law professor Sam D. Millsap Jr., this whole mess is
”a glaring example of the human wreckage, the living flotsam of a system that gets it wrong too often.”
He said that human factor
”produces mistakes that destroy the lives of too many innocent men and women and could in this case lead to the execution of a man who has been butchered by a system that undermined the promise that our courts are fair and guarantee the protection of the innocent.”
It’s all up to Governor Brown now to correct what would definitely be the big mistake of letting an innocent man die. Let’s hope that he gets his act together in time to save this black man’s life and not foolishly wait for a Clint Eastwood to give him a call at the last minute.
What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments below and please share this news.
This article (State Of California To Execute Innocent Prisoner In Death Row) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author and TrueActivist.com.
Even when his trial was going on I always thought he was innocent and was being railroaded. Too many things weren’t right. If this is allowed to happen, then I have lost all faith in this state, and especially Governor Brown.
For heavens sake someone do something about this. Surely this cannot be allowed to happen? For what reason?? This man is innocent. If this poor man has to die – after spending his life behind bars for a crime he didn’t commit – then the American government are no better morally than the evil bastard who gunned down those poor people in France.
Nothing new! 2 996 innocents murdered by their own government on 9/11
Good luck Kevin cooper, free the man!
Misplaced priorities?
OR
Wanton & callous disregard to the essence of man.
…….2whomitmayconcern:
THINK ABOUT IT.
Cooper – All The Best!
The man needs to be out of prison and compensated for the years of mistakes .
Let the guy out of prison AND the state pays for 30 years of his living expenses and give him a paycheck he can save or spend or what ever he wants! And get down on your knees judge and jury and beg this man’s forgiveness.
Janice Simmons I totally agree with you!
Death penalty is a shame for America and for The entire human rece. If someone made a crime, there are penalties worse than death, like forced labour for just bread and water for its lifetime. But if NOT… You can still save an innocent.
how could this happen in america “supposedly” the greatest country in the world?its judicial system has to be flawed for allowing it?between daily police blunders(shooting of innocent people,corruption…)and many miscarriages of justice among other things this country is in a sad state of affairs don,t you think??
In 2015, Cooper’s case was the subject of an
episode CNN’s “Death Row Stories.” In that
broadcas,t startling evidence and statements
from those tied to the case show that Cooper
should be freed. These facts are listed on a
defense website savekevincooper.org and are
as follows:
The coroner who investigated the Ryen
murders concluded that the murders took
four minutes at most and that the murder
weapons were a hatchet, a long knife, an
ice pick and perhaps a second knife. How
could a single person, in four or fewer
minutes, wield three or four weapons, and
inflict over 140 wounds on five people, two
of whom were adults (including a 200
pound ex-marine) who had loaded
weapons near their bedsides?
Two days after the crimes were discovered;
the Sheriff’s Department issued a “Criminal
Bulletin” stating the suspects were “three . .
. white or Mexican males,” one wearing a
“blue short-sleeve shirt.” In 2004, the
defense uncovered that the day after the
murders a Sheriff’s deputy recovered a blue
shirt with blood on it near the scene of the
crimes. The prosecution never disclosed
this blue shirt to the defense, and it is now
“missing.”
A woman identified as a girlfriend of one of
the possible murderers alerted the sheriff’s
department that her boyfriend, a convicted
murderer, left blood-spattered coveralls at
her home the night of the murders. She
also reported that her boyfriend owned a
hatchet matching the one recovered near
the scene of the crime, which she noted
was missing in the days following the
murders; it never reappeared; further, her
sister saw that boyfriend in a vehicle that
could have been the Ryens’ car on the night
of the murders.
The Sheriff’s deputy who destroyed the
bloody coveralls lied at trial when he
testified that he acted on his own in
destroying them. In 1998, over 13 years
after the trial, the defense uncovered a
Sheriff’s office “disposition report” that
showed that the deputy’s supervisor had in
fact approved the destruction of the
coveralls. That report was never turned
over to the defense, and the jury thus
never knew that the testimony they heard
from the deputy was false.
It will now be up to California Governor Jerry
Brown to decide whether Cooper will die by
lethal injection in the coming weeks.
this is complete bullshit! the system is so lame they wont admit they are wrong so they will stick to their guns knowing he is innocent! only in america! and we are supposed to be proud? really???
Justice, Mercy
He had something to do with it
This is a prime example of why our government should not be allowed to administer the death penalty as a form of punishment. Mr. Cooper is one of many that have been wrongly convicted in our justice system amd the fact that any doubt lies anywhere should be enough to stop the possibility of execution. Reading this actually broke my heart and I pray that he does not become one of the other innocent people who have been executed by an imperfect justice system only to have it proven later he was innocent. Death is permanent, no amount of apologies can undo an execution. And the mere hint of innocence should be enough to stop the government sanctioned murder of this man. In 2016 this type of injustice should not even exist. It is absolutely disgusting to see such blatant disregard for human life by our criminal justice system. I’ll be praying for a reprieve for Mr.Cooper.