Kevin Cooper Death Penalty Case - Why the death penalty shouldn't exist

[Deleted]

I don't really get how from the view of the state and tax payer how life imprisonment is better then the death penalty.

The rare exception does not really warrant a overhaul of the system.

Actually yes, yes it does.. better to let all the criminals go than to kill an innocent person.

[breadisfunny]

The country's justice system shouldn't have the power to just kill its citizens, taking away their freedom is enough if they are truly guilty and it allows them to change their minds when it turns out the imprisoned is innocent. The death penalty takes that away that ability.

Not to mention the death penalty is much more costly.

i completely disagree. violent criminals are evil. evil must be eradicated at it's source. if that means the deaths of ten of millions of violent criminals to have a functioning society than so be it. even if it's hundreds of millions of violent criminals than the ends justify the means.

[Themius]

i completely disagree. violent criminals are evil. evil must be eradicated at it's source. if that means the deaths of ten of millions of violent criminals to have a functioning society than so be it. even if it's hundreds of millions of violent criminals than the ends justify the means.

You sound paranoid...

[Annoying]

Why accept a non-zero error rate when there are nonlethal options that meet all valid state interests at the same time? There's no reason people on death row need to be killed beyond some vague sense of that's what should happen to them. So why not just stick to option that has some chance of being undone in part when we fuck up?

A cheaper option, no less.

[oxymoronic]

Lots of legal theatre involving very expensive actors to make it look like they're bothering with actual reexamination of the evidence to ensure they actually convicted the right person when they actually aren't doing anything of the sort.

so we lock people up forever and dont care to go through all evidence and ensure they actually the convict the right person? wow, now that is cruel and unusual punishment.

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I can think of nothing more unjust than having the State execute an innocent.

you lack imagination...

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Actually yes, yes it does.. better to let all the criminals go than to kill an innocent person.

lmao are you really that naive? so allow countless to die for 1 person... what do you think these criminals are care bears? lol....

[LordYam]

The subject is San Quentin Death Row inmate Kevin Cooper, who was convicted of the brutal murder of Chino Hills (San Bernardino County) chiropractors Doug and Peggy Ryen, their 10-year-old daughter, Jessica, and an 11-year-old overnight guest, Christopher Hughes in 1983. Cooper had escaped from a nearby prison and holed up in a vacant rental house that overlooked the Ryen home when he decided to head for Mexico. Before driving away in the family station wagon, he butchered the Ryens and Christopher and left for dead son Josh, then 8, with his throat slit.

The evidence against Cooper always was overwhelming. “It is utterly unreasonable to suppose that, by coincidence, some hypothetical real killer chose this night and this locale to kill; that he entered (the neighbor’s) house just after defendant left to retrieve the murder weapons, leaving the hatchet sheath in the bedroom defendant used; that he returned to the (neighbor’s) house to shower; that he drove the Ryen station wagon in the same direction defendant used on his way to Mexico; and that he happened to wear prison issue tennis shoes like those of the defendant, happened to have the defendant’s blood type, happened to have hair like the defendant’s, happened to roll cigarettes with the same distinctive prison-issued tobacco, and so forth,” reasoned a 1991 California Supreme Court ruling. That’s why a jury convicted him.

There was a time when a reasonable person might question Cooper’s culpability, if only because of the crudeness of 1983 forensics. Former Pomona (Los Angeles County) cop-turned private-investigator Paul Ingels thought Cooper might be innocent; it was hard for Ingels to fathom how one man could wield a hatchet, ice pick and one or more knives to such brutal effect. Ingels went to work for Cooper’s defense team as lawyers argued that DNA testing, unavailable during the 1985 trial, would exonerate Cooper.

When the tests finally were done, DNA nailed Cooper to the crime scene, where he claimed never to have been. In 2004, Ingels told me, “It proves, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that Kevin Cooper was involved in the murders.”

When Cooper’s lawyers devised this elaborate story about officials framing Cooper by manipulating DNA, forensics expert Dr. Edward T. Blake objected because he relies on those tests to exonerate innocent convicts. When I asked Blake if Cooper is guilty, Blake answered, “Yeah, he’s guilty, as determined by the trial and the failure of a very extensive post-conviction investigation to prove otherwise.” Blake also had worked for Cooper’s defense team.

I’ve covered a lot of crime stories. I’ve never had two people who worked for the defense tell me an inmate is guilty. The other thing that really sticks out in this story is the viciousness of the murders and the scars that will never heal for the Hughes family and Josh Ryen.
Despite Cooper’s copious criminal record, he always has managed to find advocates who will protest his innocence. No fact can deter them. They have this romantic conceit that their pious opposition to the death penalty gives them a window into clues unseen by prosecutors, judges and jurors. They excuse the brutality of sociopaths — while viewing death-penalty supporters as bloodthirsty louts. And they have this burning need to believe death row is bursting with innocent men.

Is this the same guy?

You just quoted Deborah Saunder's column. Given that she cheerfully ignored that a.) the guy who found Bloodstain A-41 and the Pro Ked Dudes prints was later fired for stealing heroin from lockup b.) that Sheriff Tidwell admitted to stealing guns from lockup, c.) that Daniel Gregonis not only refused to conduct a blind protocol, but altered his lab notes when it turned out Cooper didn't have an EAP rating of B (the bloodstain had an EAP of B) but rB, checked out the envelope that contained Cooper's blood without telling his attorneys d.) that when blind testing by both the prosecution AND the defense turned up readings of EDTA on the shirt the prosecution expert withdrew his results while refusing to say how his notes were contaminated AND at the same time waiting three weeks to do so e.) that there were TWO sets of blood in the vial (meaning that either the lab workers were extremely inept or they DID indeed remove some of Cooper's blood f.) the fact blood was found on the BACK seat and g.) that even though Officer Moran (one of the investigators) claimed he never set foot in the room where the hatchet sheath was found his prints were lifted from the closet door where Cooper slept (meaning Moran was lying through his teeth) and h.) that a witness who allegedly saw three white men covered in blood was threatened by the cops (a guy rode up to him at work and said "it's in your best interest not to testify.")

It's safe to say that no, Deborah Saunders is wrong. She cheerfully ignores evidence that disagrees with her assertion and acts like the police wouldn't ever forge evidence and that they must be pure champions of light.

Deborah Saunders is an incompetent fool at best and an outright liar at worst. Paul Ingels and Thomas Blake aren't right; they simply refuse to believe that the cops are dirty enough to forge evidence.

infracted - thread necromacy

[Orlong]

One execution is a LOT more expensive than a life sentence. financially it's a horrible idea.

If he prefers death, suicide is an option.

Execution isnt expensive, It costs less than $100. Its all the years of housing the person while they make endless appeals, and paying for the prosecuters to fight those appeals that cost money. They should be found guilty given one appeal that must be filed and decided on within one year, and if not overturned, then execute theml. It would save millions more than housing them for a life sentence

[Crissi]

Necro

Closing