[Marxism] Save the Life of Kevin Cooper!

[Bonnie Weinstein <giobon@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Save the Life of Kevin Cooper!
By Carole Seligman
March/April 2009
http://www.socialistviewpoint.org/marapr_09/marapr_09_25.html

"I guess the bottom line is this-we all have to make real-life  
decisions at one time or another in our lives. I decided to live-and  
not die just because I was sentenced to die."

This statement by San Quentin inmate, Kevin Cooper-on death row for  
25 years-convicted of a crime he didn't do, exemplifies the  
commitment and spirit of the man. Cooper devotes himself to the  
struggle for human rights from inside the torture chamber that is San  
Quentin. And this is really amazing because Cooper's case is a  
portrait of everything that is wrong about the American "justice"  
system, from racist police departments, racist prosecutors, corrupt  
and drug-addicted cops, racist judges, to Draconian laws that (like  
the cases of Mumia Abu-Jamal and Troy Anthony Davis) keep evidence of  
actual innocence out of the appeals process, and courts that allow  
such travesties to continue.

In 1985, Kevin Cooper was convicted of capital murder for the brutal  
killing of four people, three from one family, in 1983, in San  
Bernardino, California. He was scheduled to be executed February 10,  
2004. The execution was halted at the last minute after Cooper  
suffered the torture of being readied for lethal injection in San  
Quentin's death chamber. [See Kevin's essay, "Making a life for  
myself in this living hell"]. At this time, Kevin is waiting (for  
over a year) for a decision appealing the ruling of a three-judge  
panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld his death  
sentence. He is appealing for a hearing in front of a larger panel of  
the court, called an en banc hearing. His last court victory (the  
stay of execution in February 2004) was granted by such an en banc  
panel.

  The main fact, from the very beginning of this case, that made  
Cooper's arrest and conviction insane (but, perhaps this word is too  
kind), was that the child victim, Joshua Ryen, who, with his throat  
slashed, survived the attack on his family, "stated that there were  
three assailants, not one, and that they were not African-American.  
On two different occasions, when Josh saw a photograph of Mr.  
Cooper's face on television, he expressly and affirmatively stated  
that Mr. Cooper was not the person that committed the crimes." [Quote  
from Kevin Cooper's Petition for Writ of Habeus Corpus and Request  
for Stay of Execution, February 6, 2004].

And this witness statement is only one of many, many pieces of  
evidence of Cooper's innocence, which no jury has heard. Kevin Cooper  
was near, not at, the wrong place at the wrong time; and that seems  
to be the entire substance of the prosecution's case, which was based  
entirely on circumstantial evidence, all of which has been disproved  
by Kevin and his attorneys, the legal firm of Orrick, Herrington, &  
Sutcliffe. Most of the evidence that points to Kevin Cooper's  
innocence was known to the prosecution, but not the defense, at the  
time of Kevin's trial.

In 1983 Kevin Cooper was a prisoner, serving time in San Bernardino  
Men's Prison for a non-violent crime committed in his youth. He  
walked out of prison, through a hole in the fence, and hid in an  
empty home near the Ryen home where the brutal murders took place.  
The fact that he was Black in a white neighborhood, and a prisoner,  
must have played a role in turning the sole attention of the police  
to Kevin Cooper, despite so much evidence that multiple non-black  
people were the killers, including sightings of three men in the  
Ryen's stolen car after the murders took place.
The jury never heard Cooper's evidence

The jury never learned what the prosecution knew: that a pair of  
bloody coveralls, belonging to one of the men seen in the Ryen's  
stolen car after the murder (a man who had previously served prison  
time for murder!), was turned in to the police by the former  
girlfriend of the owner of the coveralls. They never learned that the  
coveralls were destroyed by a deputy sheriff with the permission of a  
supervisory officer!

The jury never learned about a critical piece of evidence that the  
prosecutors of Kevin Cooper knew. There was a confession from a man,  
Kenneth Koon, who implicated the wearer and owner of the bloody  
coveralls and knew the woman who turned them in to the police.

The jury never heard many witnesses testify that on the very night of  
the Ryen murders they saw three white men, one in bloody clothing, at  
the Canyon Corral Bar, close to the Ryen home. These witnesses have  
been corroborated by other witnesses who have come forward since the  
2004 stay of execution.

An important piece of evidence, known to the prosecution, but kept  
from the defense at the trial, was a blue shirt with blood on it  
found near the crime scene. Nor did they hear from a witness from the  
bar that one of the three men was wearing a blue shirt.

A critically important piece of evidence was kept from the jury:  
William Baird, the manager of the San Bernardino County Crime Lab,  
the person in charge of the "evidence" used by the prosecution to  
argue Cooper's guilt, had the exact pair of shoes that had made the  
bloody footprint supposedly found at the crime scene. Actually, the  
footprint was discovered at the crime lab, not the crime scene.  
Baird, unbeknownst, to the jury, was a heroin addict subsequently  
fired from the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department for stealing five  
pounds of heroin from an evidence locker. That's a lot of heroin!

The jury that convicted Kevin Cooper heard from the prosecution that  
the tennis shoes, used as evidence to convict him (the bloody  
footprint), were "solely prison-issued" shoes. They never heard from  
Midge Carroll, the Warden of Chino prison, who told the San  
Bernardino Sheriff's Department that these shoes were sold in retail  
stores and widely available. The prosecutor knew these facts, but  
illegally kept them from the defense, violating the Brady v. Maryland  
decision (1963) of the U.S. Supreme Court, which requires prosecutors  
to turn over evidence to the defense that would be helpful to the  
defendant. It's called exculpatory evidence.

The Petition for Writ of Habeus Corpus, the appeal, filed by Kevin  
Cooper's attorneys in 2004 contains statements by several jurors who  
served on the jury that convicted Cooper in 1985. These statements  
decry the hiding and destroying of evidence by law enforcement, the  
lack of testing of evidence, police misconduct, and even call for the  
state not to carry out the death sentence.
Circuit court judge questions conviction

This is a quotation from the 2006, concurring (but seemingly  
dissenting) opinion by Circuit Judge Margaret M. McKeown, of the U.S.  
District Court of Appeals:

"Significant evidence bearing on Cooper's culpability has been lost,  
destroyed or left un-pursued, including, for example, blood-covered  
coveralls belonging to a potential suspect who was a convicted  
murderer, and a bloody t-shirt, discovered alongside the road near  
the crime scene. The managing criminologist in charge of the evidence  
used to establish Cooper's guilt at trial was, as it turns out, a  
heroin addict, and was fired for stealing drugs seized by the police.  
Countless other alleged problems with the handling and disclosure of  
evidence and the integrity of the forensic testing and investigation  
undermine confidence in the evidence."

How is it possible for a judge to write such words and still concur  
with a decision that allows Kevin Cooper's conviction to stand and  
the state to execute him? This judge says in her opinion, that the  
court is constrained by provisions in the Anti-Terrorism and  
Effective Death penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA). As in other capital  
cases, this legislation (passed during the Clinton Administration,)  
uses fancy language to allow death sentences to be carried out  
without full rights to appeal and without the absolute human right to  
prove innocence!

Recently, this writer has become friends with Kevin Cooper. I have  
met him and visited with him in San Quentin's death row visiting  
cages, where prisoner and visitor are locked in dog-kennel-size cages  
for the visit. Our conversations are wide ranging and I have learned  
a lot from him. Kevin is a dedicated fighter for human rights. He is  
interested in many things, and reads widely, with a special focus on  
Black history. During our conversation in February, he gave his  
opinion that the struggles going on around the world are linked as  
struggles for human rights. The desire for human rights, the struggle  
for those rights, is, he said, what everyone, world wide, has in  
common; that the struggle to abolish the death penalty, to end the  
prison-industrial complex, to end war, to end racism, to support  
women's dignity and rights-all of these are rooted in our common need  
for human rights. I agree with his view that the world's oppressed  
people have much more in common than the differences between them.

Like Mumia Abu-Jamal, and Troy Anthony Davis, Kevin Cooper is  
interested in justice for all, not just for himself. Although, like  
Mumia and Troy, the struggle for justice in Kevin's case has extended  
over many years. Kevin has grown from a youth to a grown man  
incarcerated on death row, behind bars. In a system that incarcerates  
the innocent, and even sanctions their execution, that tortures them,  
even prepping them for executions some of which have been stopped at  
the last minute (like these three cases); Kevin's hold on his sanity  
seems miraculous to me. Not only is Kevin Cooper sane, intelligent  
and generous; he makes a genuine contribution to the struggle for  
human rights under the worst possible conditions.

Readers of Socialist Viewpoint are urged to support Kevin's struggle  
for justice. Information about Kevin's case, Kevin's essays, and how  
to make donations to his defense can be found at  
www.savekevincooper.org and the Campaign to End the Death Penalty at  
P.O. Box 25730, Chicago, IL 60625, www.nodeathpenalty.org

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10) Ritual of Death
By Kevin Cooper
March/April 2009
http://www.socialistviewpoint.org/marapr_09/marapr_09_26.html

On Monday February 9, 2004 shortly after 6:15 P.M., Rev. Jessie  
Jackson said a prayer for me and my visitors inside the visiting room  
here at San Quentin Prison. Then he and my personal Pastor and  
friends were told to leave, which they did.

I was then escorted to the rear of the visiting area and taken to a  
hallway which contained holding cells. I was then placed in the  
holding cell where I had the handcuffs removed, and was then told to  
get undressed, which I did. I was strip searched, and given a brand  
new set of prison issued clothing and told to put them on.

I was handcuffed after I got dressed and was removed from that cell  
where I was handed over to another squad of officers. I was  
surrounded by about six officers and escorted to the death chamber  
waiting room. When I was in the visiting room the prison officials  
told me that the 9th circuit court of appeals had granted me a stay  
of execution, but until they heard from the United States Supreme  
Court about whether or not my stay would stay in place this prison  
was going to proceed as if I had no stay in place.

When I arrived outside the death chamber waiting room door it was  
opened and I was told to go inside, which I did. I was then told to  
place my back on the wall while being surrounded by a new squad of  
officers. These were the officers of the execution squad. There were  
about eight of them. The leader of the squad got real close to me and  
asked me "was there going to be any trouble when they took the  
handcuffs off of me?" I looked him in his eyes and told him "no" and  
he removed the handcuffs.

I was again told to take off all my clothes, which I did and I was  
again stripped-searched. This time they used a flashlight to light up  
both my mouth and butt as they searched me! This room that I was now  
in was very, very cold, the temperature had to be in the lower 50s. I  
stood barefoot on that cold floor surrounded by those officers while  
my body was completely searched. Then I was given another new set of  
clothing, only these were the ones that I was to be executed in.

I was then placed in another cell; only this new one was half the  
size as a regular cell. It had only a toilet, a mattress and pillow  
in it. I stood there in the cold waiting for my Pastor to come pray  
with me, and for me. All the time not knowing what the United States  
Supreme Court was going to do.

About a half hour later my Pastor arrived, and she was placed in a  
cell next to mine. It was to my right-hand side, but on an angle, and  
it was hard to see her through the cell bars, but I managed. I was  
asked once again did I want a last meal, I said no.

I was asked did I want water, I said no. The warden came in and asked  
me did I have a final statement, I said no. My arms were once again  
checked so they could make sure that they could find my veins, and  
officers were passing by with armfuls of alcohol pads/swabs and other  
assorted items for my murder, and their execution!

My Pastor did a great job in keeping me focused and somewhere in the  
middle of one of her scriptures the phone rang. It was my attorney  
calling to let me know she was with me in spirit, and as soon as she  
heard something from the U.S. Supreme Court she would call and let me  
know.

I entered the death chamber waiting room around 6:35 P.M. and around  
8:15 P.M. the phone rang again and it was once again my attorney. She  
told me that she heard from the court and that they refused to hear  
the state's petition. They denied the state, and upheld my stay!!!

Even before I told my Pastor the news, I told those officers that I  
meant them no disrespect in what I was about to say to them, but they  
weren't going to do their job tonight! I then told my pastor, and she  
and I prayed! I came within three hours and 45 minutes of being  
murdered by the state of California.

I am now recovering from the manmade ritual of death that I had to  
experience. I will never be the same again! I am only getting  
stronger and more determined to do my part in shutting down the U.S.  
Government's pride and joy, "their capital punishment system!"

In Struggle

 From Death Row,

Kevin Cooper

-Reprinted from www.savekevincooper.com

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11) Innocence Makes No Difference
By Kevin Cooper
March/April 2009
http://www.socialistviewpoint.org/marapr_09/marapr_09_27.html

I, Kevin Cooper, reside on death row at California's San Quentin  
State Prison, convicted for murders I did not commit. I have come to  
realize a very real truth: When it comes to dealing with the  
government, including the state and federal court system, innocence  
makes no difference. Finality does.

The only thing that seems to make a difference is winning at any  
cost. Innocence in and of itself has never stopped this government  
from murdering people, imprisoning people, executing people, or in  
the case of war, dropping bombs on people. Innocent people.

The only true measuring stick that we have is this country's history  
of dealing with innocent people when it comes to certain governmental  
policies.

The people who make up the government of the United States-who claim  
to be better than the people who they murder, execute, imprison, and  
bomb-have one agenda: winning, and winning by any means necessary.  
Most of them have prejudices of all kinds-racism, classism,  
homophobia, sexism, and all the rest that self-righteous human beings  
have but won't admit to.

The fact is, this country was founded on killing innocent people-our  
native peoples and the Mexicans who owned California. It was built on  
enslaving and killing innocent peoples, the Africans and their  
descendants, and other poor people who were forced to work as  
indentured servants and sharecroppers.

During every war that this country has waged, innocent people have  
been affected, either by being killed or by being scapegoated, as  
were the Japanese Americans interned in World War II.

The criminal justice system has this same mindset, and has often  
worked hand in hand with other government departments in imposing the  
will of the old boys network.

The United States Supreme Court stated in its 1993 U.S. Supreme Court  
Herrera decision, in which Chief Justice Renquist ruled, that, "In  
criminal cases the state trial is the paramount event for determining  
the defendant's guilt or innocence." Federal courts do not sit to  
correct errors of fact, but to ensure that individuals are not  
imprisoned in violation of the U.S. constitution. So, if an innocent  
person imprisoned or on death row facing an execution can't prove a  
violation of his or her U.S. constitutional rights, that person will  
stay imprisoned or be executed.

This should tell everyone that innocence makes no difference when it  
comes to the U.S. government or the criminal justice system. And,  
this mindset is not just used on or against human beings; it also  
includes Mother Earth herself.

 From the birds and the air in which they fly, to the animals,  
plants, insects, trees and the ground which they live or grow out of,  
this mind set of destroying innocent life comes into play. The water  
and all life that lives in the water is also included in this,  
because these people honestly believe that they own all of these  
things, and have the god-given right to rule over them, or destroy them.

Since a certain group of people have built a system maintained by the  
killing of innocent peoples and animals, no one today can be  
surprised that innocence makes no difference to that select group who  
make and enforce the laws in this country.

In the ghettos and poor communities of this country, the police very  
often shoot and kill innocent people, and get away with it. The  
military knows for a fact that they will kill innocent people in  
their military campaigns, yet that doesn't stop them, and they get  
away with it. This government has laid the foundation for killing  
innocent people throughout its history.

During this one-sided war in Afghanistan, when innocent people are  
proved to have been bombed and killed, government representatives  
say, "We regret the loss of innocent life, but this is a consequence  
of war." It does not have to be this way, but it is, and it will stay  
this way as long as innocence makes no difference.

The sanctions that this country placed on Iraq do not affect its  
leaders, especially Sadam Hussein, and the government knows this. The  
only people who are truly affected are the innocent ones, mainly  
children. They are dying from hunger, lack of medical care, and every  
other preventable ailment inflicted upon them. Yet this government  
doesn't care because innocence makes no difference, whether it's  
foreign or domestic.

Whenever you have a system that knowingly and willingly puts innocent  
human being's lives at risk, one must question this system and the  
people who run this system. Those involved in this death penalty  
system know that innocent people have been executed. The system is  
controlled by humans, and humans make mistakes. Yet this is not  
enough to stop this system as a whole.

Institutional racism is a very real and proven fact of life in  
America, yet the people within these institutions refuse to  
acknowledge this truth. In fact, it honestly appears that they don't  
give a damn. They do care about their own agenda, which in the  
majority of cases doesn't include us poor people and people of color.  
It most often excludes us, and to this degree they want to exclude us  
from living.

Sometimes, in order to do this, they have to break or ignore their  
own laws, while at the same time make new laws, which they use to  
enforce their will. Some of us pay a price for this. Our innocence  
makes no difference.

In struggle from death row,

Kevin Cooper

-Reprinted from www.savekevincooper.com

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