Kevin Cooper, an inmate on Death Row in the United States, is about to be executed. Crucial evidence that could free him came to light after his conviction, yet this evidence has never been presented in court. International action is needed to halt his execution
With just 5 days left before the execution day, we need to keep the pressure on Gov. Schwarzenegger is feeling the heat. The San Francisco Chronicle's editorial board is calling for a stay of execution and even asked its readers to telephone the governor to tell him so! Kevin's case is all over the radio, TV and newspapers in California and we've managed to get his side of the story out to hundreds of thousands of people.
YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE:
E-mail or call Governor Schwarzenegger to ask that he stay Kevin Cooper’s
scheduled execution.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: 916-445-2841
Fax: 916-445-4633
Email:
governor@governor.ca.gov
SAVE KEVIN COOPER
http://www.savekevincooper.org/
***************
http://www.nodeathpenalty.org/factsheets/kevinCooper.html
KEVIN COOPER
A CASE FULL OF HOLES
On the night of June 4, 1983, three members of the Ryen family and a
houseguest were murdered in San Bernadino County. Eight year-old Josh Ryen survived to
tell police that three white or Hispanic men had killed his family and
attacked him. Kevin Cooper, an African-American man, now sits on death row for this
crime. Kevin could face execution despite the fact that the case against him
is full of holes.
The authorities claim that recent DNA tests link four pieces of evidence to
Kevin and the crime. But this evidence has been mishandled and very likely
tampered with. Destruction of evidence and police misconduct have played a part in
the case from the beginning, but neither Kevin nor his attorneys knew the
extent of the mishandling of evidence prior to signing the DNA testing agreement.
Kevin's defense attorneys are attempting to bring this information before the
court through an Integrity of Evidence hearing. They are also attempting to
do further testing on blond hair that was found in one of the victims' hands.
The Campaign to End the Death Penalty and Kevin's supporters ask you to
review the following facts and decide for yourself whether Kevin's guilt has been
established "beyond a reasonable doubt", as the state claims.
The Case:
• Josh Ryen, sole survivor of the attack, has always maintained that
three white or Hispanic men killed his family. Josh and his grandmother have
supported Kevin Cooper's defense team and question Kevin's guilt.
• Clumps of long, blonde hair were found in the hands of one of the
victims. Photographs of this hair-which is definitely not Kevin Cooper's, as
Kevin is African-American-were never shown to the jury. The hair may soon be
tested, which could identify someone other that Kevin as being involved in the
crime.
• At least three weapons were used in the brutal murders, indicating
multiple perpetrators. A member of the American Board of Pathology said it
would be "virtually impossible" for one person to have committed this crime.
Prosecutors were unable to account for this, claiming that Kevin Cooper acted
alone.
• Hostile, racist demonstrations were held near the courthouse after
Kevin Cooper was taken into custody. At one demonstration a toy gorilla was
hung in effigy.
• A pair of bloody coveralls was submitted to the police by a woman
claiming that they had been left at her house by her boyfriend, who she
believed was involved in the murders. Police records show that the coveralls were
deliberately disposed of in a dumpster by the police without any testing. The
woman was never brought in to testify.
• This same woman has said that she bought her boyfriend a brown
T-shirt that matches a T-shirt found at the scene of the crime. There may be a
discrepancy between the number of bloodstains reported to be on the T-shirt when
it was found and the number of bloodstains reported to be on the T-shirt when
it was tested. This T-shirt is one of the pieces of evidence linked to Kevin
by the DNA results.
• A prison inmate confessed to the crime, providing his cellmate
with accurate information about the crime that was not in the newspapers. The man
who confessed was also a friend of the woman who provided the bloody
coveralls. The prosecutor's investigator took steps to make sure this confession would
not be investigated.
• Kevin Cooper had no motive for committing these brutal murders and
none was established at trial. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time,
having just escaped from a minimum security institution where he had been
serving a sentence for a nonviolent offense. Police found him an all-too easy
target.
The Evidence:
• In 1983, a single, isolated drop of blood was found in the Ryen's
house at some distance from the murders. During the original trial,
prosecutors said the blood came from an African-American and suggested that it provided
a link to Kevin Cooper. Criminalist Daniel Gregonis subsequently altered
initial lab test results to fit Kevin's profile.
• In 1999, several pieces of evidence from Kevin Cooper's case were
released to Gregonis without a court order or the knowledge of Kevin's legal
counsel. The reason for checking out the evidence for 24 hours was never
explained. Evidence tampering would have been very easy during this time. These
events, combined with previous mishandling, raise great concerns about the
integrity of this evidence.
• The Sheriff's deputy who found the lone drop of blood at the crime
scene-as well as a a bloody shoeprint that somehow was not discovered until
it landed in the crime lab-recently admitted he was using narcotics at the time
of the trial. He was fired from the San Bernardino Sheriff's department for
stealing five pounds of heroin-which he both used and sold to drug dealers-from
the evidence locker. The blood drop and the shoeprint were the only two
pieces of evidence that linked Kevin to the crime in the original trial.
• A deputy working on the case was found to have lied about having
been in a room where Kevin had stayed (not in the victim's house).
Nevertheless, "evidence" that reportedly came from that room mysteriously appeared and was
used to support the state's case. This "evidence" was not documented during
the initial search of the premises.
• There are a number of discrepancies between the police reports,
arrest warrant, and evidence claims. An example of this is a handrolled
cigarette butt that appears sporadically in these reports. Another is a manufactured
cigarette that the state claims was found in the victims' car, yet which is
clearly not there in the original crime scene photographs. Because Kevin occupied
a house in the surrounding area of the victim's house, and was a smoker at
the time, the police had access to cigarette butts that they could claim were
found on the victims' property.
###
YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE:
E-mail or call Governor Schwarzenegger to ask that he stay Kevin Cooper’s
scheduled execution.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: 916-445-2841
Fax: 916-445-4633
Email:
governor@governor.ca.gov SAVE KEVIN COOPER
http://www.savekevincooper.org/ ***************
http://www.nodeathpenalty.org/factsheets/kevinCooper.html KEVIN COOPER
A CASE FULL OF HOLES
On the night of June 4, 1983, three members of the Ryen family and a
houseguest were murdered in San Bernadino County. Eight year-old Josh Ryen survived to
tell police that three white or Hispanic men had killed his family and
attacked him. Kevin Cooper, an African-American man, now sits on death row for this
crime. Kevin could face execution despite the fact that the case against him
is full of holes.
The authorities claim that recent DNA tests link four pieces of evidence to
Kevin and the crime. But this evidence has been mishandled and very likely
tampered with. Destruction of evidence and police misconduct have played a part in
the case from the beginning, but neither Kevin nor his attorneys knew the
extent of the mishandling of evidence prior to signing the DNA testing agreement.
Kevin's defense attorneys are attempting to bring this information before the
court through an Integrity of Evidence hearing. They are also attempting to
do further testing on blond hair that was found in one of the victims' hands.
The Campaign to End the Death Penalty and Kevin's supporters ask you to
review the following facts and decide for yourself whether Kevin's guilt has been
established "beyond a reasonable doubt", as the state claims.
The Case:
• Josh Ryen, sole survivor of the attack, has always maintained that
three white or Hispanic men killed his family. Josh and his grandmother have
supported Kevin Cooper's defense team and question Kevin's guilt.
• Clumps of long, blonde hair were found in the hands of one of the
victims. Photographs of this hair-which is definitely not Kevin Cooper's, as
Kevin is African-American-were never shown to the jury. The hair may soon be
tested, which could identify someone other that Kevin as being involved in the
crime.
• At least three weapons were used in the brutal murders, indicating
multiple perpetrators. A member of the American Board of Pathology said it
would be "virtually impossible" for one person to have committed this crime.
Prosecutors were unable to account for this, claiming that Kevin Cooper acted
alone.
• Hostile, racist demonstrations were held near the courthouse after
Kevin Cooper was taken into custody. At one demonstration a toy gorilla was
hung in effigy.
• A pair of bloody coveralls was submitted to the police by a woman
claiming that they had been left at her house by her boyfriend, who she
believed was involved in the murders. Police records show that the coveralls were
deliberately disposed of in a dumpster by the police without any testing. The
woman was never brought in to testify.
• This same woman has said that she bought her boyfriend a brown
T-shirt that matches a T-shirt found at the scene of the crime. There may be a
discrepancy between the number of bloodstains reported to be on the T-shirt when
it was found and the number of bloodstains reported to be on the T-shirt when
it was tested. This T-shirt is one of the pieces of evidence linked to Kevin
by the DNA results.
• A prison inmate confessed to the crime, providing his cellmate
with accurate information about the crime that was not in the newspapers. The man
who confessed was also a friend of the woman who provided the bloody
coveralls. The prosecutor's investigator took steps to make sure this confession would
not be investigated.
• Kevin Cooper had no motive for committing these brutal murders and
none was established at trial. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time,
having just escaped from a minimum security institution where he had been
serving a sentence for a nonviolent offense. Police found him an all-too easy
target.
The Evidence:
• In 1983, a single, isolated drop of blood was found in the Ryen's
house at some distance from the murders. During the original trial,
prosecutors said the blood came from an African-American and suggested that it provided
a link to Kevin Cooper. Criminalist Daniel Gregonis subsequently altered
initial lab test results to fit Kevin's profile.
• In 1999, several pieces of evidence from Kevin Cooper's case were
released to Gregonis without a court order or the knowledge of Kevin's legal
counsel. The reason for checking out the evidence for 24 hours was never
explained. Evidence tampering would have been very easy during this time. These
events, combined with previous mishandling, raise great concerns about the
integrity of this evidence.
• The Sheriff's deputy who found the lone drop of blood at the crime
scene-as well as a a bloody shoeprint that somehow was not discovered until
it landed in the crime lab-recently admitted he was using narcotics at the time
of the trial. He was fired from the San Bernardino Sheriff's department for
stealing five pounds of heroin-which he both used and sold to drug dealers-from
the evidence locker. The blood drop and the shoeprint were the only two
pieces of evidence that linked Kevin to the crime in the original trial.
• A deputy working on the case was found to have lied about having
been in a room where Kevin had stayed (not in the victim's house).
Nevertheless, "evidence" that reportedly came from that room mysteriously appeared and was
used to support the state's case. This "evidence" was not documented during
the initial search of the premises.
• There are a number of discrepancies between the police reports,
arrest warrant, and evidence claims. An example of this is a handrolled
cigarette butt that appears sporadically in these reports. Another is a manufactured
cigarette that the state claims was found in the victims' car, yet which is
clearly not there in the original crime scene photographs. Because Kevin occupied
a house in the surrounding area of the victim's house, and was a smoker at
the time, the police had access to cigarette butts that they could claim were
found on the victims' property.
###
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