Kevin Cooper:
Framed Up and Railroaded to Execution

Jan 18, 2010

The U.S. Supreme Court’s refusal in November to review Kevin Cooper’s case has cleared the way for Cooper’s execution, as soon as a federal judge approves lethal injection as a “humane” way of killing people.

If that happens, California will execute an innocent man. That’s the publicly stated opinion of 11 federal judges, a prison warden and five of the twelve jurors who originally found Cooper guilty of four 1983 murders.

There is overwhelming evidence that the police and prosecution knew who the real murderers were and framed Cooper instead.

That hired hitmen committed the murders was evident from the testimony of Anthony Diaz, a former sheriff’s deputy, and of Diana Roper, the ex-girlfriend of one of the apparent killers. And there was physical evidence showing this–but it simply disappeared!

There was even a direct witness testimony that cleared Cooper. The sole survivor of the carnage, then eight-year-old Josh Ryen, told two deputies that he had seen three white men in his family’s home during the attack, and that Cooper, who is black, “was not the guy who did it.”

While suppressing testimonies in favor of Cooper, cops planted false evidence against him. A button, supposedly found near the murder site and used as evidence by the prosecution, was from a green prison jacket, not the brown version Cooper was wearing. A bloody shoe print and a hatchet were also clearly planted after the fact.

An appeals court judge dissented from the last review upholding Cooper’s conviction in a 101-page statement. He concluded that deputies “manipulated and planted evidence in order to convict Cooper,” and “discounted, disregarded, and discarded evidence pointing to other killers.”

It’s the deputies and prosecutors who framed an innocent man who ought to be in prison. Instead, this system of “justice” is ready to kill an innocent man.