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Add an EventKevin Cooper: Will California Execute An Innocent Man?
--An interview with author J. Patrick O’Connor about death row prisoner Kevin Cooper
By Angola 3 News
“The State of California may be about to execute an innocent man,” wrote Judge William A. Fletcher of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco. Judge Fletcher was writing about death-row prisoner Kevin Cooper, whose recent appeal to stop his execution was rejected by the Ninth Circuit on May 11, 2009.
One of the 11 out of 27 Circuit judges that dissented against the ruling to deny Cooper relief, Judge Fletcher wrote in the 101 page dissenting opinion that Cooper was “probably innocent,” of the 1983 murders for which he was convicted, and “if he is innocent, the real killers have escaped…They may kill again. They may already have done so…We owe it to the victims of this horrible crime, to Kevin Cooper, and to ourselves, to get this one right.”
Judge Fletcher’s dissent was recently featured in a front page New York Times article by John Schwartz, titled Judges’ Dissents for Death Row Inmates Are Rising. Schwartz writes that Fletcher “argued that the evidence had been tainted by bumbling and misconduct and suggested that blood linking Mr. Cooper to the crime had been planted by overzealous investigators. And while the Ninth Circuit in 2004 ordered new DNA tests, Judge Fletcher wrote that the lower court had set conditions rendering the results useless. ‘There is no way to say this politely,’ he wrote. ‘The district court failed to provide Cooper a fair hearing and flouted our direction to perform the two tests.’”
On May 18, 2009 Kevin Cooper was interviewed by Flashpoints/KPFA radio, where Cooper compared his current situation with that in 2004, when he came less than 4 hours from being executed before a stay was granted: “I was able to survive this madness. And now I seem to be right back, right in it.”
J. Patrick O’Connor is the editor of www.crimemagazine.com and the author of The Framing of Mumia Abu-Jamal (Lawrence Hill, 2008). He has previously worked as a reporter for UPI, editor of Cincinnati Magazine, associate editor of TV Guide, and editor and publisher of the Kansas City New Times. This newly released video-interview with O’Connor was conducted in June, 2009 in San Francisco, at the law office of Orrick, Herrington, and Sutcliffe, which is the law firm representing Kevin Cooper. O’Connor is currently researching and beginning to write a new book about Cooper’s story.
Kevin Cooper’s lawyers are expected to file an appeal with the US Supreme Court later this fall, which will be Cooper’s last chance to avoid execution. The Kevin Cooper Defense Committee, based in the San Francisco Bay Area, is planning a major event for December 13, for which some details are still forthcoming. To learn more about the Dec. 13 event and about Kevin Cooper, please visit www.savekevincooper.org or contact Rebecca Doran of the Kevin Cooper Defense Committee directly by phone (415-264-6622) or email (rebecca_doran@yahoo.com).
--This new video-interview and written report was made by Angola 3 News, which is a new project of the International Coalition to Free the Angola 3. At our website www.angola3news.com, we are collecting news stories and creating our own media projects about the Angola 3, and other cases like Kevin Cooper’s, which are part of a larger picture of multi-faceted injustice within the ‘criminal justice’ system. Please stay tuned for upcoming releases from Angola 3 News! The exciting new play titled "Angola 3" is premiering at Loyola University on Sept. 18. If you are interested in placing an ad in the playbill, becoming a Sponsor or Supporter, email poeticpanther2002@yahoo.com or call (832) 494-4027.
Kevin Cooper Appeal
by Rebecca Doran / July 2009
On May 11 innocent death-row prisoner Kevin Cooper lost his bid in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit for a rehearing en banc of crucial evidence that would have exposed a decades-old police frameup and set Cooper on the path to freedom from California’s San Quentin State Prison.
Up to 28 judges of the 9th Circuit Court can vote on an en banc (or full panel) hearing application, and Cooper just barely failed to receive a majority in his favor. Dissents published by the court reveal that at least 11 justices were in favor of a rehearing, and one judge suggested that the vote was even narrower, as not all dissenting judges signed the published opinions.
The decision was a blow to Cooper and his supporters, who have passionately rallied for his release, but the 114-page decision is also a powerful testament to the overwhelming evidence that Kevin Cooper, a Black man, is the victim of a racist police frame-up.
The court mulled over Cooper’s application for more than 500 days and was petitioned in March by the state of California to expedite its decision to uphold or overturn the 2007 ruling that denied Cooper a new day in court. A rehearing of Cooper’s case would have exposed at least six violations of his constitutional rights regarding exculpatory evidence that had been withheld from Cooper by the prosecution. Further, a mounting hill of evidence that three white men were responsible for the 1983 murders would have set police and prosecutors on the defensive.
The move by California to pressure the court was an obvious tactic to clear legal hurdles that could delay the issuance of a death warrant as the state moves closer to lifting its court-ordered moratorium on executions. The temporary suspension of executions was ordered after San Quentin executioners botched the December 2005 execution of Nobel Peace Prize Nominee and death-row inmate, Stanley Tookie Williams. California officials are working to reinstate the death penalty on the grounds that a new method of injecting a lethal cocktail into inmates is more “humane”.
The 9th Circuit decision to deny Cooper a rehearing was issued with four separate lengthy dissents against the official decision. The most notable of the dissents was written by Judge Fletcher, who opened his opinion with the line, “The State of California may be about to execute an innocent man.” The following 105 pages of dissenting opinions detail the mangled police investigation, evidence of a frame-up, and the failure of the courts to provide Cooper a fair day in court.
Cooper has now exhausted his appeals in the lower courts and his next and possibly final legal step will be to petition the U.S. Supreme Court. It should be noted that the high court upholds the vast majority of decisions against death-row inmates. If the high court denies Cooper’s appeal, he will join a growing number of California inmates who will be moved, one after another, to a segregated death holding cell where the lifting of the moratorium will signal their move to the execution chamber. This places incredible weight on Kevin Cooper supporters and the anti-death penalty movement to remobilize the worldwide movement that halted Cooper’s February 2004 scheduled execution.
Socialist Action has long defended Kevin Cooper’s struggle for freedom and has helped expose the overwhelming evidence of a frame-up that was detailed in the dissenting opinions in the 9th Circuit decision.
Cooper supporters point to important issues such as the fact that the lone surviving victim of the massacre stated that three white men had killed his family. A police log from the night of the murder shows the victims’ car being driven away from the scene by three white men. A spot of blood, which police claim is Cooper’s, was found at the crime scene. The police lab tested this evidence under suspicious circumstances, and altered its records when results seemed to favor Cooper. This same spot of blood has been completely exhausted in testing, but somehow keeps replenishing itself for new tests.
Police also destroyed exculpatory evidence, such as a pair of bloody coveralls owned by a local man who was a murderer-for-hire, and a bloody t-shirt that could have freed Cooper from these charges decades ago. Further, a California inmate confessed to committing these crimes with two other men. However, this inmate recanted his confession after receiving pressure from the prosecution.
A quick search on socialistaction.org will lead the reader to a list of articles that go into greater detail about the frame-up and Cooper’s struggle for abolition of the racist death penalty and release from prison. It is crucial that the movement to defend Cooper’s struggle for justice raise the important demand to free him. The fundamental issue of the abolitionist movement is to stop executions, but Cooper supporters should not stop there. Stopping his execution but accepting life in prison without parole for this innocent man would be a betrayal of basic human morality.
Cooper’s supporters should create a mass-action-oriented, democratic movement with open arms to every layer of society that seeks to end the death penalty and free Kevin Cooper. For more information on how to get involved in the Cooper case, contact the author at rebecca_doran [at] yahoo.com, or call (415) 264-6622. Kevin Cooper can be reached by mail at Kevin Cooper C65304 – 4-EB-82, San Quentin Prison, San Quentin, CA 94974.
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