title:  FIVE Federal Judges Admit That California Is About To Execute ‘An Innocent Man’
text: Thirty years ago, the state of California sentenced Kevin Cooper to death. In 2004, his life was spared just hours before he was supposed to be executed. But now, more than a decade later, in a matter of weeks,  he is once again facing lethal injection and even a federal judge agrees that he may be innocent.In 1983, Cooper escaped a maximum security prison and was holed up in an abandoned house hiding from authorities. While he was hiding out in the house, two adults and two small children, just a short distance away in the Chino Hills suburb of Los Angeles were being murdered. When police found the bodies of Douglas and Peggy Ryen, their 10-year-old daughter Jessica, and 10-year-old Chris Hughes they zeroed in on Cooper as the suspect. He was eventually convicted of the crimes and sentenced to death despite an overwhelming amount of evidence that he did not commit the murders.There was one survivor, a then 8-year-old Josh Ryen who had his throat cut and was left for dead. When Josh Ryen recovered from his injuries, he stated that it was three white or Hispanic men that attacked and killed his family and that Cooper was not involved. This started a chain of events that reveal a 30 year cover up and blatant falsification of evidence by police and the prosecutor s office in San Bernadino County.In addition to the child s statement (which he later changed), there was another suspect. When the Ryens were murdered, their station wagon was stolen and witnesses reported that they d seen three men in a vehicle matching its description near the crime. Furthermore, the ex-wife of a white supremacist (Lee Furrow) told the police that her ex had come home wearing bloody pants after the murder. She also said that a hatchet was missing from her home. She gave the police the pants and they never tested them for DNA. Finally, police also found the blood of two other people who did not match Cooper or the victims at the crime scene.Cooper appealed his conviction and although the Ninth Circuit Court upheld the conviction, five federal judges wrote a 103-page dissent, saying: There is no way to say this politely. The district court failed to provide Cooper a fair hearing. The district court impeded and obstructed Cooper s attorneys at every turn. [T]he court imposed unreasonable conditions, refused discovery that should have been available as a matter of course; limited testimony that should not have been limited; and found facts unreasonably, based on a truncated and distorted record. Public confidence in the proper administration of the death penalty depends on the integrity of the process followed by the state  So far as due process is concerned, twenty-four years of flawed proceedings are as good as no proceedings at all. the State of California may be about to execute an innocent man. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court refused to hear the case and that means that his conviction has been upheld. Now, Cooper is just weeks away from execution, he will be the first person in the state to be executed in the state since 2006 if Governor Jerry Brown does not grant him a stay.It is unprecedented to have five federal judges warn that an innocent man may be executed. Frankly, in a case like this that should be all that is needed for a new trial, at the very least.The death penalty is controversial in this country. It is one of those things that even liberals are split on. But whether you are pro- or anti-capital punishment I think we can all agree that if there is the slightest chance that someone may be innocent, the state should not be killing them. And I am saying this to you as a person whose father was violently murdered. Governor Jerry Brown needs to halt this execution. If this man is put to death when there is so much evidence pointing to his innocence, our entire judicial system will be invalidated.Featured image via Save Innocents