PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Cooper was convicted and sentenced to death in 1985. In 2002, the attorney general’s office green-lighted additional DNA testing in the case. The results showed that Cooper’s DNA was on a bloody T-shirt found outside a bar near the Ryens’ home, on two cigarette butts inside the family’s stolen station wagon and in the blood droplet inside the home. But the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals intervened eight hours before Cooper’s execution in 2004 to order more tests on the T-shirt. Tests later revealed that Cooper’s blood stains on the T-shirt had a high concentration of the chemical EDTA, which is used to preserve blood samples in police labs. Cooper’s attorney argued that the blood was planted."
---------------------------------------------------------------
STORY: "Gov. Jerry Brown orders new tests in quadruple-murder case of death row inmate Kevin Cooper," by Alene Tchekmedyian, published by The Los Angeles Times on December 24, 2018. (Alene Tchekmedyian is a reporter in the Metro section of the Los Angeles Times. She covers breaking news in California).
PHOTO CAPTION: "Kevin
Cooper, center, was convicted in 1985 of killing four people and
sentenced to death. Years after the trial, experts and critics have
raised doubts about whether authorities sent the right person to prison."
GIST: "Gov.
Jerry Brown on Monday ordered new tests of physical evidence in the
case of Kevin Cooper, whose high-profile quadruple-murder conviction
three decades ago has come into question in recent years. Brown
said in a statement that he was directing “limited retesting of certain
physical evidence in the case and appointing a retired judge as a
special master to oversee this testing, its scope and protocols.” Cooper has maintained his innocence
throughout the case and has claimed that law enforcement planted
evidence and ignored statements by witnesses that pointed to other
possible suspects. He has lost more than a dozen appeals. Brown’s legal staff has been digging into Cooper’s 2016 clemency petition, discussing the case with both prosecutors and defense attorneys. In July, Brown said he would consider Cooper’s request
to order additional forensic testing in the case. Cooper’s attorneys
have said some key items recovered during the investigation were never
properly tested and should be analyzed using more current DNA
technology. The
case dates to 1983, when three family members and an unrelated boy,
11-year-old Christopher Hughes, were found hacked and slashed to death
in a Chino Hills home. The
boy’s father discovered the bloodied bodies when he went to the hilltop
home looking for Christopher, who had not returned from a sleepover in
time for church one Sunday morning. Through
the window, he discovered the bodies of Doug and Peggy Ryen, their
10-year-old daughter, Jessica, and Christopher. The victims had been
stabbed a total of 143 times with an ice pick, an ax and a knife. The
Ryens’ 8-year-old son, Joshua, was slashed across the throat but
survived. News
reports at the time said the case shook the community so powerfully
that homeowners began locking their doors at night and parents no longer
allowed their children to attend sleepovers. Two
days before the killings, Cooper had escaped from a prison in Chino,
where he was serving a sentence for burglary. Police found ample
evidence — cigarette butts, a button from a prison uniform, a leather
hatchet sheath — that Cooper had spent two days in a house near the
Ryens’ after his escape. He was arrested about seven weeks after the killings. At
the trial, jurors heard the lone survivor give a videotaped statement
that conflicted with what he had said when he was first interviewed by
authorities. After Joshua Ryen was airlifted to a hospital, he told a sheriff’s deputy and a social worker that his attackers were three white men.
An hour later, he said they were Latino. Later that month, the boy told
a deputy that Cooper, who is black, was not the killer after he saw the
man’s face on a wanted poster on television. Jurors heard him say that he saw just one man or maybe a shadow in his home. The
clues at the Ryens’ unlocked home were scant: a bloody shoe print on a
sheet in the master bedroom and a single drop of blood on a wall in the
hallway. At
his trial and throughout the appeals process, Cooper’s attorneys argued
that the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department had destroyed or
suppressed evidence suggesting the attackers were three white men,
including a convicted contract killer. Meanwhile, Cooper repeatedly maintained his innocence. At one point, he told a prosecutor: “You’re trying to make me remember detail by detail. … I only know what I didn’t do.” Cooper was convicted and sentenced to death in 1985. In 2002, the attorney general’s office green-lighted additional DNA testing in the case. The results showed that Cooper’s DNA
was on a bloody T-shirt found outside a bar near the Ryens’ home, on
two cigarette butts inside the family’s stolen station wagon and in the
blood droplet inside the home. But the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals intervened eight hours before Cooper’s execution in 2004 to order more tests on the T-shirt. Tests
later revealed that Cooper’s blood stains on the T-shirt had a high
concentration of the chemical EDTA, which is used to preserve blood
samples in police labs. Cooper’s attorney argued that the blood was
planted. The
San Bernardino County district attorney’s office sent a 94-page memo to
Brown in May refuting Cooper’s arguments and vehemently opposing any
grant of clemency."
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. 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 found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog;
