[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., FLA., ALA., MISS., LA., OHIO, CALIF.

[Rick Halperin]

May 19



PENNSYLVANIA:

DA wrapping up double-murder death-penalty case



Prosecutors on Friday said they've likely called their last witness before 
resting their case against accused double murderer Paul Jackson Henry III.

But that witness - state Trooper Daniel Weldon, lead investigator in the Fawn 
Township home-invasion double slaying - remains on cross-examination by defense 
attorney Farley Holt.

During a detailed and lengthy cross-examination of Weldon on Friday, May 18, 
presiding Common Pleas Judge Michael E. Bortner asked Holt how much longer he 
thought he'd be.

"At least an hour," Holt told the judge, which prompted a quiet groan or 2 from 
the gallery and looks of exasperation on the faces of at least three jurors.

Holt said he'd finish up with Weldon Monday morning, after which he and 
co-counsel Suzanne Smith would present the defense's case.

Holt estimated the defense would conclude its case the morning of Tuesday, May 
22.

That means jurors could begin deliberating by Wednesday morning or perhaps even 
by Tuesday afternoon.

Death penalty: If jurors convict Henry of 1st-degree murder, York County 
District Attorney Dave Sunday will ask them to impose the death penalty.

Also on Friday, jurors heard from forensic scientists who linked 3 guns found 
in Henry's possession to the scene of the double homicide.

As part of that testimony, the jury heard that 3 bullets taken from the body of 
victim Foday Cheeks came from a .45-caliber Colt Combat Commander, and that 
spent shell casings tied 2 other guns to the scene as well.

Earlier in the week, jurors learned Cheeks' blood was found on 2 of those guns 
as well as on both cuffs of a gray sweatshirt that prosecutors say Henry was 
wearing when he allegedly gunned down Cheeks and Danielle Taylor in Cheeks' 
rented farmhouse on Brown Road Sept. 13, 2016.

Taylor, 26, of Spring Grove, had recently moved into Cheeks' home with another 
young woman, Coren Clymer. Testimony has revealed Cheeks was a heroin dealer 
and that both women used heroin.

The background: First assistant district attorney Jen Russell told jurors 
during her opening statement last week that Henry and his wife, Veronique 
Henry, knocked on the door of Cheeks' home, and that Henry fatally shot Taylor 
in the neck as soon as she opened the door.

Testimony has revealed the Henrys either had to step over or around the dying 
woman to get in the house.

Russell said Henry walked into the home and was met in the dining room by 
Cheeks, at which point Henry fired 6 shots, hitting Cheeks "center mass" all 
six times. He then dragged Cheeks into a bedroom and fired one "finishing shot" 
into the man's head, she told jurors.

Veronique Henry came into the home behind her husband and held 4 people - Amy 
Eller, Clymer, Eller's 14-year-old son and the son's 17-year-old friend - at 
gunpoint while her husband searched the house for money and drugs, according to 
Russell.

Eller, Clymer and the teenage boys have all testified that they witnessed Henry 
repeatedly shoot Cheeks and drag him out of their view after Cheeks fell. They 
also testified they were ordered to get on the floor, where Veronique Henry 
guarded them while reassuring them they wouldn't be killed. Eller and the teens 
told jurors that Veronique Henry held them at gunpoint.

Robbed: The Henrys stole Cheeks' wallet, Eller's purse and the cellphones of 
the victims before fleeing, according to prosecution testimony.

Testimony has revealed that Veronique Henry was sexually involved with Cheeks 
earlier in 2016 and lived with him for a time. Testimony has also indicated she 
had stolen $700 from him.

Holt has said Veronique Henry was a heroin addict. She also was a convicted 
heroin dealer.

She committed suicide by hanging herself in York County Prison 2 days after the 
double homicide and 1 day after she and her husband were captured in Dauphin 
County following the police chase.

The charges: Henry, 41, of East Manchester Township, is charged with 2 counts 
each of 1st-, 2nd- and 3rd-degree murder, plus robbery. He's also charged with 
fleeing police and aggravated assault for the police chase.

At the time of his death, Cheeks was free on $25,000 bail, charged with 2 
felony counts of dealing heroin.

Presiding Common Pleas Judge Michael E. Bortner has issued a gag order that 
prevents attorneys and others involved in the case from speaking publicly about 
the case until it's concluded.

(source: York Dispatch)






FLORIDA:

For victims' families, no easy answer on whether the ordeal of a death penalty 
case is worth it



The parents of the murdered students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School 
have been asked - directly by prosecutors, indirectly by defense lawyers, and 
while talking amongst themselves - whether the young man responsible for 
mercilessly slaughtering their children should be executed for the crime.

At stake is more than just the life of the killer, Nikolas Cruz. Whenever the 
death penalty is ordered in Florida, the case is automatically appealed, 
guaranteeing the victims' families will be locked with Cruz in a lengthy 
process that can take years or even decades to resolve.

It's a position no one envies, but some who have been through similar ordeals 
say the Parkland parents cannot give a wrong answer, no matter what they 
decide.

The South Florida Sun Sentinel talked to family members of 3 victims whose 
accused killers faced the death penalty. They agreed that the process is long, 
grueling and takes an emotional toll. Yet none regret their decisions to ask 
prosecutors to seek a death sentence.

Some people say the best camera is the one you have on you, especially when it 
comes to vacation snap shots.

The Broward State Attorney's Office already announced that it plans to seek the 
death penalty against Cruz, 19, who killed 14 students and 3 staff members at 
the Parkland high school. Prosecutors won't say whether the families' input 
could change the strategy.

And Broward Public Defender Howard Finkelstein, whose office is representing 
Cruz, has offered to have him plead guilty in exchange for a sentence of life 
in prison.

Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter Jaime was among the dead, said Finkelstein's 
offer is tempting.

"I support the death penalty," he said. "But I don't want to pursue it in the 
case of my daughter's killer. ... If there's a chance Cruz is willing to take a 
plea deal, I say go for it."

Guttenberg said his main concern is having to relive the case at every stage - 
a trial, followed by a penalty phase, followed by appeals, the specter of a 
retrial, repeating the process from the beginning, "only to end up at what is 
likely to be a life sentence anyway."

Andrew Pollack, who lost his daughter, Meadow, in the shooting, said he is 
willing to yield to the position of the majority of Stoneman Douglas families. 
"The death penalty is too easy for him," said Pollack, who refuses to refer to 
Cruz by name or even as a person. "I'm not going to worry about what happens to 
this thing anyway. One day he'll get what's coming to him."

Pollack said he'll avoid reliving the crime by staying away from the trial.

Crowley's advice

For Chris Crowley, staying away wasn't an option. Crowley waited 27 years to 
see his sister's killer executed in 2013. William Frederick Happ confessed in 
the execution chamber and begged for forgiveness before he was put to death by 
lethal injection.

His victim, Angela Crowley, had lived in Lauderdale Lakes for just a few months 
and was working at a travel agency in the spring of 1986. She was on her way to 
visit a friend in Citrus County when she was abducted and murdered by Happ.

Chris Crowley, 61, said watching Happ die gave him a kind of closure he never 
could have gotten had he known the killer was in a cell getting 3 meals a day.

"He would have had the possibility to kill again," Crowley said. "The 
possibility of escape. The possibility of a commuted sentence. With the death 
sentence, there's finality."

Morrissey's advice

Linda "Kay" Morrissey, whose husband, Joseph, was murdered in April 2010, 
wasn't supposed to live long enough to see the sentencing of his killer, Randy 
W. Tundidor, according to trial testimony. Tundidor was in the process of 
getting evicted from his home by Morrissey, his landlord. So Tundidor and his 
son kidnapped the couple, forced them to withdraw money from an ATM, and 
brought them home.

Death sentence upheld in murder of Nova Southeastern professor

Tundidor stabbed Morrissey to death and set fire to his Plantation home, 
intending to kill his landlord's wife and 5-year-old son. The pair escaped the 
burning house.

Tundidor was sentenced to death in 2014. He is still awaiting execution.

3 years later, Morrissey has no regrets about seeking death for her husband's 
killer.

"A lot of people think, 'Maybe you can change him. Why does he need to die?'" 
she said. "Why should I? He put himself there."

Morrissey said she has 1 wish - that the execution take place before her son, 
now 14, legally becomes an adult who can witness it without her permission.

"That is something I would not want him to see," she said. "I won't even go 
myself."

The Parkland families need to make their own decision about whether they want 
Cruz to be executed, she said.

"No matter what they decide to do, they're not wrong," she said. "They need to 
do what is right for them."

Bowie's advice

Deborah Bowie calls her situation "the textbook case for everything that is 
dysfunctional about capital punishment."

Bowie's sister, Sharon Anderson, was murdered in 1994 along with 2 others in 
what became known as the Casey's Nickelodeon murders. The other victims were 
Casimir "Butch Casey" Sucharski, former owner of the popular Pembroke Park bar 
that gave the case its nickname, and Marie Rogers.

2 men, Seth Penalver and Pablo Ibar, were initially accused of the crime. They 
were tried together in 1997, but the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict. 
Penalver was tried separately in 1999, convicted and sentenced to death. Ibar 
was tried in 2000, also convicted and sentenced to death.

But those 3 trials were not the end. Both defendants worked on appeals. 
Penalver was granted a new trial. He went back before a jury in 2012 and was 
acquitted. Now Ibar has been granted a new trial as well. His next court date 
is in June.

"It's a marathon every time," said Bowie. "I feel for any family that is 
starting a death penalty case at the beginning. They have no idea what they're 
in for."

There was a time when Bowie said she would accept nothing but execution for her 
sister's killers. Today, 6 years after Penalver's acquittal, she's less rigid. 
"The peace is not going to come from the death penalty. The peace comes from - 
I really do believe in the system. I still am hopeful that this jury will get 
it right. And that might include something other than the death penalty."

(source:Sun Sentinel)








ALABAMA:

Jury recommends death for murderer but case still hangs in balance



It took a jury less than an hour of deliberations Friday to recommend the death 
penalty for convicted murderer Jerry Jerome Smith.

"This has been very traumatic for the families of the 3 victims and they're 
wanting justice," Houston County District Attorney Pat Jones said.

If justice is Smith's execution they are still a long way from getting it. The 
case, as it has successfully been in the past, will be appealed.

"We think this is a case of mitigating evidence of (Smith's) upbringing and 
background that was horrendous," said defense attorney David Hogg.

During the trial he and co-counsel Aaron Gartlin argued that Smith suffered an 
abusive childhood before turning to illegal drug use. They also claim he's 
mentally challenged and may not have understood the implications of his actions 
when he shot the victims.

However, they failed to convince jurors who voted 10-2 to recommend the death 
penalty. If 1 more juror had opted for life in prison without parole a mistrial 
would have been declared.

Houston County Circuit Judge Michael Conaway will decide next month whether to 
accept the recommendation. He likely will.

This would be the 5th time Smith, 47, has been sentenced to death. Previous 
cases, though, were overturned on appeal and sent back to local courts.

While his punishment has hanged in the balance for 2 decades Smith's guilt 
isn't in question. In 1996 he killed Willie James Flournoy, 40, Theresa Ann 
Helms, 26, of, and David Lee Bennett, 29, at a Dothan home police described as 
a crack (cocaine) house.

Theresa's brother, Marvin Helms, was among those who sat through 4 grueling 
days of testimony this week. "We've been suffering for 22 years and it's time 
to carry (the death penalty) out."

However, even Jones believes that might be easier said than done saying a 
similar case overturned in Texas could impact Smith's next appeal.

Houston County District Attorney Russ Goodman assisted Jones in prosecuting the 
case.

(source: WTVY news)








MISSISSIPPI:

https://reprieve.org.uk/update/watch-fourteen-days-in-may/

(source: reprieve.org.uk)








LOUISIANA:

Mike Small testifies in hearing for former death row client, Darrell Robinson



Mike Small, a well known criminal defense attorney in the state based out of 
Alexandria, testified in a Rapides Parish hearing on Friday involving his 
former client, Darrell James Robinson. Small represented Robinson pro bono 
during the 1st portion of his quadruple murder trial where he was found guilty.

Robinson was convicted in 2001 of the 1996 shooting deaths of Billy Lambert, 
50, Carol Hooper, 54, Maureen Kelley, 37, and Kelley's 10-month-old son, 
Nicholas. Robinson was staying with Lambert at the time in the Rapides Parish 
community of Poland and working for him.

Robinson, who has failed in prior appeal attempts, is now trying to have his 
conviction and sentence vacated based on claims by post-conviction attorneys 
that the original prosecutor on trial, Mike Shannon, may have withheld evidence 
from Robinson's attorney at the time, Mike Small. It's a claim the Rapides 
Parish District Attorney's Office and Shannon himself have repeatedly denied. 
Shannon is not allowed to be deposed. Also, as a result, Small is essentially 
being judged about if he provided effective counsel to Robinson.

Small has been a practicing attorney since 1969. He's represented high profile 
clients like former Governor Edwin Edwards. He said that Robinson was his only 
client in a death row case. He signed on as his attorney after being contacted 
the day after the murders by the public defender's office.

Much of Small's testimony focused on concerns he had about the state using a 
jailhouse snitch, Leroy Goodspeed. Small said he tries to get snitch testimony 
out of a court case because in high profile cases, inmates generally come 
forward trying to be a snitch in an effort to get a deal for themselves.

"One of the first motions we filed was to prevent snitch testimony," he said.

Small testified about how thorough he is when it comes to being organized in a 
case.

Robinson's post-conviction attorney, Matilde Carbia, asked him a series of 
questions pertaining to information he said he never received during the 
discovery portion before the trial.

Among those items, Small said he didn't receive any serology notes, diagrams, 
and some photos connected to testing reports from the crime lab. The diagrams 
were of the scene where the crime lab swabbed for serological evidence.

"Would that have been significant information?" asked Carbia.

"It could have led to further testing...it involved things I would have wanted 
to look at proceeding with Darrell Robinson's defense," he said.

Robinson's attorneys set out to discredit the jailhouse snitch testimony. Small 
said that Robinson had strict instructions not to speak with anyone in jail.

"He was never to talk about anything with his case," he said.

Small attacked Goodspeed's reputation.

"His jail records were voluminous," he said.

Sometime around the trial, Goodspeed was charged with principal to 1st degree 
robbery. A letter was read in court involving direction from prosecutors in 
Lafayette that "no action be taken at this time" on that charge for Goodspeed, 
who was on probation at the time. Small said he never received the letter.

"It would have made me think...that there may have been despite the 
denial...some help from the prosecutors," said Small. He said he would have 
wanted to know at the the time if that was the case.

Another issue that was brought up involved back to back pardons of Goodspeed in 
1999 and 2001.

"I'd want to know how he got back to back pardons," he said.

Other materials were brought up in court that involved communication between 
prosecutor Mike Shannon and a Lafayette-area assistant district attorney 
involving Goodspeed, but the nature of those materials wasn't clear. Small said 
he would have wanted those as well.

In August 2001, after the trial wrapped up for Robinson, Goodspeed's principal 
to first degree robbery charge was dismissed.

Robinson's attorneys also had Small read a portion of Shannon's opening 
arguments from the 2001 trial where Goodspeed was asked if he received or had 
been offered anything for his testimony. He said that he had not.

Later on, information was brought up that victim Carol Hooper's husband was the 
benefactor of her life insurance policy and in a memo discovered from the 
insurance company, a note saying, "Mr. Hooper thinks they have the wrong 
person."

There was also testimony about a tip that had come in at the time of the crime 
from a man named Kirby Brown who saw someone drop Robinson off near the house 
sometime that afternoon on the day of the murders. Small said he was unaware of 
that as well.

During cross examination, Small was asked by prosecutor Hugo Holland if he had 
ever been found incompetent. He said no. He said this was his first complaint. 
Holland asked if maybe it had something to do with Robinson being his only 
death penalty client.

Holland pushed Small on claims that Robinson's attorneys made earlier that 
Small didn't have access to serology notes from the crime lab.

"I definitely didn't take that agreement (to visit the crime lab) to mean that 
(he could view the notes)," he said. Small also said he couldn't recall if he 
ever subpoenaed those notes.

There was also discussion between Holland and Small about how a inmates benefit 
from giving testimony in court. Small agreed with Holland that in some cases 
people are rewarded after, but "I think there's an obligation to disclose 
that."

After Small's testimony wrapped up, a woman named Candace Wallace was called to 
testify. He mother, Louella Rollins, she said had been repeatedly harassed by a 
private investigator working for Robinson's attorneys. Wallace didn't have the 
name of the man, but described him as "old" with "gray hair," alluding to a 
private investigator mentioned earlier this week.

"My mom and I had several conversations that a private investigator for Mr. 
Robinson would come to her property...my mom told him that she didn't remember 
and he always wanted to come inside...she told him it was private property," 
said Wallace.

Wallace said the man always showed up late in the evening, sometimes pushing 9 
p.m.

When Rollins' home caught fire, she went to live with Wallace near Baton Rouge. 
Wallace said that same investigator showed back up.

"My children made a sign saying that my mawmaw doesn't want to talk to you," 
she said.

Wallace described her mother as "extremely emotional." She said just this past 
Monday, 2 women from Robinson's team showed back up at her mother's home while 
she was on the phone with her.

"I said give them the phone," she said. "I wrote down their information...they 
have been repeatedly told not to come to my mother's house...it lit me on 
fire."

She said those same women returned on Wednesday to ask she if she needed a ride 
to court for a subpoena she had.

"I was very angry," she said. "I told them my mom will be there Friday, she 
doesn't need a ride from you...I'll bring her my damn self."

Rollins was later excused from her subpoena, but Holland brought her back to 
talk about the harassment. However, Judge Patricia Koch said that she wanted 
Rollins to submit her testimony via a deposition. Holland protested that move.

One more thing to note, late Friday afternoon, News Channel 5 became aware from 
the Rapides Parish District Attorney's Office that Robinson made a comment to 
three deputies working in the courthouse.

We're told by the DA's Office that he told them that "if he had a single action 
45, he could take them all out." The deputies were instructed to report that to 
their supervisors.

(source: KALB news)








OHIO:

Jury recommends death penalty for convicted killer Shawn Grate



A jury has recommended that an Ohio man convicted of killing 2 women be 
sentenced to death.

41-year-old Shawn Grate was convicted of aggravated murder and kidnapping in 
the 2016 strangulation deaths of Stacey Stanley and Elizabeth Griffith. Their 
bodies were found in a vacant Ashland home after a 3rd woman escaped.

The death penalty phase for Grate's trial began Friday. The same jury 
deliberated just 3 hours before finding him guilty. The jury heard evidence 
aimed at saving Grate's life before deciding whether to recommend the death 
penalty or life in prison.

Ashland County Judge Ronald Forsthoefel will have the final decision on the 
sentence.

(source: WCMH news)

***************

A Clayton man was already among death row's youngest residents. Now he's a step 
closer to execution.



Austin Myers, 23, of Clayton, is to be executed for murdering Justin Back, 18, 
at his home outside Waynesville in January 2014 on July 20, 2022.

A former Northmont High School student - one of the youngest on Ohio's Death 
Row - is a "big step" closer to being executed in the murder of a childhood 
friend.

The Ohio Supreme Court, in a decision published Thursday, affirmed the death 
penalty for Austin Myers, 23, in the death of Justin Back, 18, at Back's home 
outside Waynesville in January 2014. Investigators said someone else killed 
Back but said Myers instigated the crime.

The execution is scheduled for July 20, 2022.

"It's another step," Warren County Prosecutor David Fornshell said about the 
affirmation. "It's a big step."

Fornshell was pleased with the 7-0 ruling by the state's highest court.

"The 7-0 decision is always something you like to see," said Fornshell, who 
handled the appeal with Assistant County Prosecutor Kirsten Brandt. "That 
should give the public some confidence that Mr. Myers received a fair trial and 
a just punishment."

Myers, of Clayton, was sentenced to death on Oct. 16, 2014, for Back's murder 
during a robbery. Another Clayton man, Timothy Mosley, actually stabbed Back to 
death. Myers and Mosley both were 19 years old then.

Mosley received a sentence of life without parole.

Back was 18 at the time, a 2013 Waynesville High School graduate about to enter 
the U.S. Navy.

Myers' lead lawyer, Timothy McKenna, could not be reached for comment.

Fornshell said he anticipated the defense to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Testimony showed that Myers planned the deadly crime, although Mosley 
ultimately stabbed Back to death during a struggle with Mosley and Myers on the 
floor of the kitchen after a garrote designed to choke Back to death caught on 
his chin.

Myers and Back were friends until the eighth grade, when Myers moved to Clayton 
and attended Northmont. Testimony indicated Myers was the one who decided they 
should target Back's home, unaware the family safe contained only $70 at the 
time.

Myers took various steps during 2 days of preparation, including acquiring 
septic chemicals he expected would help decompose Back's body, and shot the 
body before he and Mosley disposed of it in woods in Preble County.

"Without Mr. Myers, I don't think Mr. Mosley had any real disposition to kill," 
Judge Donald Oda II said upon confirming the death sentence recommendation of 
the jury.

Myers' family pleaded for his life, and he went to the witness stand to deliver 
a statement to the jury.

"I'm sorry that this happened. I know this doesn't bring Justin back," he told 
the jury. "I wish I could go back in time and stop this."

Back was scheduled to join the Navy in 10 days when Myers and Mosley showed up 
at his door.

After the sentencing, Back's mother, Sandy Cates, said, "It's bittersweet. It's 
justice for Justin, but it's never going to bring Justin back."

Cates lobbied for sentencing changes in "Justin's Law' as part of her efforts 
to make something positive out of his loss.

The Justin Back Be a Hero 5k Run/Walk is scheduled for June 9 at Waynesville 
Middle School.

Last October, when the Ohio Supreme Court scheduled a hearing on Myers' appeal 
of the death sentence, he was the 2nd youngest facing the death penalty in Ohio 
to Damantae Graham, 20, sentenced to die in a Portage County case.

In their 60-page decision, the justices and Judge Cynthia Rice of the Eleventh 
District Court of Appeals, sitting for Justice William O'Neill, rejected 
arguments - including questions based on Myers' relative youth - brought by 
McKenna and co-counsel Roger Kirk.

The justices agreed with Fornshell, Oda and the jury in Warren County Common 
Pleas Court that "the person who instigates and plans an aggravated murder may 
be at least as culpable as the one who actually carries it out."

The decision concludes: "We affirm the judgments of conviction and the sentence 
of death."

(source: Dayton Daily News)








CALIFORNIA:

Momentum grows to re-examine California case of convicted death row inmate



Kevin Cooper has always insisted he was innocent of the fatal slashing of a 
man, a woman and 2 children in San Bernardino County in 1983. He won support in 
2009 from 5 federal appeals court judges, who signed an opinion saying Cooper 
"is probably innocent of the crimes."

But Cooper, now 60, is one of more than 20 condemned prisoners in California 
who have lost the final appeals of their death sentences. Their cases are on 
hold while a federal judge in San Francisco considers challenges to the state's 
untested procedures for single-drug lethal injections. But in light of U.S. 
Supreme Court rejections of similar challenges in other states, California may 
soon schedule its first executions since January 2006, unless the governor 
intervenes.

Cooper has asked Brown to grant a reprieve - a postponement of his execution - 
and to order a new investigation of his case. It would include modern-day DNA 
testing of critical evidence: a bloody T-shirt found near the victims' home, a 
hatchet, and hairs found on the victims that may have come from the killer or 
killers. The decision is solely up to the governor because Cooper's case is no 
longer before the courts, although he could try to file a new appeal if Brown 
turned him down.

His lawyers submitted the request in February 2016. It drew new attention 
Thursday when the New York Times posted a column that pored over the case and 
argued that Cooper had probably been framed. And on Friday he gained a new 
ally, Harris, who as attorney general from 2011 through January 2017 had the 
evidence in her custody and opposed new DNA testing.

"As a firm believer in DNA testing, I hope the governor and the state will 
allow for such testing in the case of Kevin Cooper," Harris said in a Twitter 
posting. The senator, also a former San Francisco district attorney, said her 
"career as a prosecutor was marked by fierce opposition to the death penalty 
while still upholding the law and a commitment to fixing a broken criminal 
justice system."

Norman Hile, a lawyer for Cooper, said he was "excited' by Harris' stance. "We 
should not execute somebody who might be innocent," he said.

Brown's press secretary, Evan Westrup, said the matter is still under review 
and did not indicate when a decision might be made. Such requests are 
"thoroughly and diligently reviewed," he said by email.

Brown personally opposes the death penalty, but he also said, while serving as 
state attorney general, that there were no innocent people on California's 
death row.

The murder victims, Doug and Peggy Ryen, their 10-year-old daughter, Jessica, 
and an 11-year-old houseguest, Chris Hughes, were hacked to death in the Ryens' 
home in Chino Hills in June 1983. Cooper had just escaped from a nearby prison, 
where he was serving a sentence for burglary, and had hidden out at a home 
close to the Ryens.

The Ryens' 8-year-old son, Josh, was stabbed in the throat but survived. He 
later testified that he recognized Cooper as the lone attacker. But while being 
treated for his wounds in a hospital, he communicated to a social worker with 
hand signals that the assailants had been 3 or4 white men. Cooper is black.

A jury convicted Cooper after lengthy deliberations, and he was sentenced to 
death. 8 hours before his scheduled execution in 2004, the Ninth U.S. Circuit 
Court of Appeals called a halt and ordered DNA testing of the bloody T-shirt. 
Cooper's DNA was found on the shirt, and his death sentence was reaffirmed.

But in a 101-page dissent from the appeals court's refusal to reconsider the 
case, Judge William Fletcher said the judge overseeing the test had refused to 
allow a defense expert to witness it and had discounted defense evidence of 
preservatives in the blood sample - an indication, Fletcher said, that officers 
had taken the blood from a lab in an effort to frame Cooper.

He also said another potential witness had told officers that her boyfriend, a 
convicted murderer named Lee Furrow, who is white, had worn a T-shirt like the 
one found near the murder scene and had a hatchet that resembled descriptions 
of the murder weapon. Police retrieved a pair of bloody coveralls from Furrow 
but later destroyed them without testing them, Fletcher said.

4 more judges signed Fletcher's opinion, 6 issued their own dissents, and one 
dissenter said the actual vote for a rehearing was even closer on the 27-member 
court. But Cooper ran out of appeals when the Supreme Court denied review of 
his case.

Hile, Cooper's lawyer, said the request for new DNA testing has drawn support 
from the president of the American Bar Association, former state Supreme Court 
Justices Joseph Grodin and Cruz Reynoso, the law school deans at UC Berkeley, 
the University of San Francisco and Loyola, and, before his death in March 
2017, former state Attorney General John Van de Kamp.

(source: Bob Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle)

****************

Is California death row inmate Kevin Cooper innocent? What he's hoping Gov. 
Brown will do



Interest in proving the innocence of Kevin Cooper, a black man accused and 
convicted of a gruesome 1983 murder in Southern California, renewed this week 
with calls for Gov. Jerry Brown to allow the use of DNA testing that might 
exonerate him.

As of Friday, Brown had not yet signaled whether he would allow it.

Among those advocating for Brown to act was Sen. Kamala Harris, D-San Francisco 
- a former prosecutor - who in a Facebook post said her career has been "marked 
by fierce opposition to the death penalty while still upholding the law and a 
commitment to fixing a broken criminal justice system."

So who is Kevin Cooper? And why is Sen. Harris now calling on California???s 
governor to allow DNA testing in his case? Here's a quick recap of the 1983 
murder, the investigation that followed and how Cooper ended up in death row at 
San Quentin Prison for a crime he says he didn't commit.

Who is Kevin Cooper?

Cooper, now 60, is a death row inmate in San Quentin Prison who was convicted 
of murdering a family in Chino Hills, nearly 40 miles east of Los Angeles, in 
1983. Since his conviction in 1985, Cooper has maintained his innocence. He has 
exhausted all appeals for his conviction.

At the time of the murder in 1983, Cooper was 27 and had just escaped from a 
minimum-security prison in Chino, the town next to Chino Hills, the Los Angeles 
Times reported at the time. Cooper had fled to Tijuana and Ensenada before he 
was recaptured on an island 20 miles south of Santa Barbara.

Why did his case resurface now?

Nicholas Kristof, a columnist for The New York Times, on Thursday published 
online an opinion column that suggests Cooper was framed in the murder. Kristof 
said that he interviewed numerous people, including Cooper, and that in his 34 
years at the Times, he's "never come across a case in America as outrageous as 
Kevin Cooper's."

In the piece, Kristof writes that the sole survivor of the murder said it was 
actually 3 white men who had committed the crime but that police were instead 
focused on Cooper.

The opinion column was shared by many people on Twitter including Sen. Harris, 
actress Mia Farrow, and NBC News national correspondent Peter Alexander.

Why does Cooper's fate rests on Gov. Jerry Brown?

According to Kristof, proof of Cooper's innocence hinges on "touch DNA" testing 
on evidence collected from the crime scene - a tan T-shirt, a hatchet used in 
the murder, blond or brown hairs found in the hands of the victims. Cooper says 
he never wore that T-shirt, and that DNA can prove it.

Brown has the power to authorize the use of DNA testing in Cooper's case. 
Additionally, as governor, Brown can invoke his clemency powers to spare 
Cooper's life.

Why now - what's the urgency?

Cooper's time is running out. In 2016, California voters passed a death penalty 
reform measure that speeds up executions. The last time California executed a 
death row inmate was in 2006. Kristof writes that with the new law, Cooper's 
execution could come within the next year.

What do others say about his case?

Kristof's column - along with his research and reporting - elicited strong 
reaction on social media, and it cast doubt on the police work that followed 
the 1983 murders. The story is being called "unbelievable," "infuriating," "a 
terrible miscarriage of justice," and "a prime example of why there should be a 
right to DNA testing."

(source: San Diego Union-Tribune)