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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@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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