"This is madness, the likes of which cannot be tolerated in a country that prides itself on adherence to the rule of law.
But despite all this, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has declined to rehear the case. In dissent, Judge William Fletcher wrote a 114 page opinion, laying out in detail just how screwed up this case is. He was joined in dissent by four more judges, and still six others wrote their own dissenting opinions. But it wasn’t enough.
The fate of Kevin Cooper now lies with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger."
REPORTER MINDY TOWNSEND; HUMAN RIGHTS: CHANGE.ORG;
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"Regardless of what each of us thinks of the death penalty, we can agree that executing an innocent person is just wrong," the story by reporter Mindy Townsend published on "Human Rights" - change.org - on December 12, 2010 begins, under the heading, "California Set to Execute an Innocent Person."
"But that is exactly what California is about to do," the story continues.
"Kevin Cooper is a black California man who was convicted of the quadruple homicide of a white family. But as Nicholas Kristof reported, his conviction is shady and the evidence against him is fraught with fatal flaws.
The murders of Doug and Peggy Ryen, their 10-year-old daughter and 11-year-old guest occurred in 1983, and left one survivor, the Ryen’s son Josh. Josh initially told the police that three white people committed the crime, but at the trial later on suggested that the crime had been perpetrated by one man with an Afro. As Kristof points out, the former theory makes more sense because there had been three murder weapons: a hatchet, an ice pick and at least one knife.
But that isn’t the only anomaly in the case. A beige shirt found near the crime scene had Cooper’s blood on it, but with traces of a preservative like the kind used by police to preserve blood in test tubes. In addition, the police ignored reports by two women that a convicted murderer had appeared with several other people wearing blood-stained overalls and driving a station wagon like the one owned by the murdered family.
The list goes on. A hatchet was missing from convicted murderer’s tools. He wasn’t wearing the beige shirt later in the evening that he was wearing earlier in the evening. The police threw away the blood-stained overalls.
This is madness, the likes of which cannot be tolerated in a country that prides itself on adherence to the rule of law.
But despite all this, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has declined to rehear the case. In dissent, Judge William Fletcher wrote a 114 page opinion, laying out in detail just how screwed up this case is. He was joined in dissent by four more judges, and still six others wrote their own dissenting opinions. But it wasn’t enough.
The fate of Kevin Cooper now lies with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. If he does not intervene and commute Cooper’s sentence, California will execute an innocent man. The initial murder of four innocent people is gut-wrenching enough. The state doesn’t need to add one more to the list."
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The commentary can be found at:
http://humanrights.change.org/blog/view/california_set_to_execute_an_innocent_person
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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be accessed at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith
For a breakdown of some of the cases, issues and controversies this Blog is currently following, please turn to:
http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=120008354894645705&postID=8369513443994476774
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog; hlevy15@gmail.com;
