Kevin Cooper (prisoner)

rdf:langString Kevin Cooper (prisoner)

rdf:langString Kevin Cooper

rdf:langString Kevin Cooper

rdf:langString Richard Goodman

rdf:langString Cooper in 2006

rdf:langString Death

rdf:langString On death row

rdf:langString KevinCooper1.jpg

rdf:langString Kevin Cooper (born Richard Goodman; January 8, 1958) is an African-American man currently on death row at San Quentin Prison. Cooper was found guilty of four murders in the Chino Hills area of California in 1983. However, he has steadfastly maintained his innocence. Cooper's conviction and death sentence has been highly controversial, garnering repeated attention from both Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times and Erin Moriarty on the CBS News program "48 Hours." There have been accusations that Cooper received an inadequate defense, as well as prosecutorial misconduct such as destruction of evidence, withholding exculpatory evidence from the defense, planting of evidence, brainwashing to witnesses, and perjured testimony by the Sheriff's Department. There have also been practical questions raised, such as how Cooper, at 155 pounds, and allegedly acting alone, overpowered a 6-foot, 2-inch ex-military policeman and his athletic wife, both of whom had loaded firearms close at hand. It has also been questioned why a single perpetrator would use 3 or 4 different weapons to commit the murders, and why none of the victims were able to run away while the others were being attacked. Cooper's habeas corpus petitions have been denied. The evidence in the case of the original trial has been reviewed by the California Supreme Court, by the United States District Court and by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. In 2007, two judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit wrote that "As the district court and all state courts, have repeatedly found, evidence of Cooper's guilt was overwhelming. The tests for which he asked to show his innocence 'once and for all' show nothing of the sort." In a concurring opinion, however, Judge Margaret McKeown said she was troubled that the court could not resolve the question of Cooper's guilt "once and for all" and noted that significant evidence bearing on Cooper's culpability has been lost, destroyed or left unpursued. In a lecture, a distinguished federal appeals court judge, William A. Fletcher, declared "the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department framed him". In a dissenting opinion, written in 2009, Judge Fletcher began by stating: "The State of California may be about to execute an innocent man." Fletcher wrote that the police may have tampered with the evidence and that the Ninth Circuit Court should have reheard the case en banc and should have "ordered the district judge to give Cooper the fair hearing he has never had." Five federal circuit court judges joined in Fletcher's dissent and five more stated that Cooper has never had a fair hearing to determine his innocence.