Save Kevin Cooper from execution
Kevin Cooper will be executed in California on Feb 10 for murders there are serious questions he could have committed. Key evidence was tampered with and destroyed. Other evidence was ignored. Expert witnesses said one person could not have done the murders. Yet he is in prison and about to be murdered, oh excuse me, “executed”.
Statewide rallies are being held today, Tuesday, to publicize the case, including one in Santa Monica outside St Monica’s Church where Gov. Schwarzenegger worships in a no doubt futile case to get him to look at the facts of the case.
These facts include:
The police claim one person, single-handedly inflicted: 159 wounds, 28 fractures & two amputations. The prosecution insists one person used: a knife, hatchet & ice pick, committing the murders in under 90 seconds. An expert witness from the American Board of Pathology testified that was physically impossible.
As sole witness to the murders, Joshua Ryen, contends “3 white or Latino men” killed his family, and he questions the police’s case against Kevin Cooper.
One of the victims had a clump of blond hair in her hand, the hair has never been analyzed.
A single, isolated drop of blood was found in the Ryens’ 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. He also made a number of serious errors and failed to follow proper procedure while conducting his initial tests.
The Sheriff’s deputy who found the lone drop of blood at the crime scene-as well as 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.
There’s lots more too. Check out the pdf fact sheet.
PS You already figured out Kevin Cooper is African-American, right?
The white trash who live near the trial certainly did.
Racist demonstrations were held near the courthouse after Kevin Cooper was taken into custody. At one demonstration a toy gorilla was hung in effigy.