"California could kill an innocent person." I have written five federal judges, paying the ex-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's request to commute the death sentence of Kevin Cooper, on death row since 1991. Schwarzenegger should grant a pardon before the end of his term, January 3 last year. He did not, passing the grain carefully to his successor, Democrat Jerry Brown.But the affair Cooper has become one of the thorniest political issues, the emblem of the many evils that afflict the American justice system. In particular, the system of capital punishment. The court case of Kevin Cooper begins with one of the most heinous crimes in the history of the state of California.
E 'on the evening of June 5, 1983 when in a house in Chino Hills, the wealthy suburb of Los Angeles, are found four dead bodies. This is Doug and Peggy Ryen, their 10 year old daughter and a young friend. The bodies were horribly mutilated. Mangled with an ice pick. Torn to shreds with an ax.
Miraculously survives, despite the cut throat, the other son of Ryen, Josh, age 8. The victims are all white. The first evidence that investigators collect it is that Josh, vaguely reminiscent of the violent invasion by three people - even their white. The boy's story makes sense. Home Ryen are found the ax, ice pick, two knives.
Possible, probable, that the killers were in the group. At the time of trial, however, Josh retracted his earlier testimony in a black and identifies the author of the massacre. At the time of trial, after all, is he the only suspect, Kevin Cooper, 25 year old African-American, repeatedly condemned for theft, escaped from prison and detained in an abandoned house not far from that of Ryen.
And 'that the court finds him guilty. A Cooper is imposed the sentence more severe the penalty. Kevin Cooper has never ceased to profess his innocence. Over time, its cause has gained more and more followers. There are many flaws in the prosecution's theorem. How could one man breaking into Ryen house fitted with an ax, an icebreaker, two knives? How could he be right for an ex-marine to almost 200 kg as Doug Ryen, without the other family members were trying to escape? The hypothesis of multiple killer is, moreover, supported by other evidence.
The night of the massacre a group of men, including a murderer recently released from prison, arrived in a local bar. They had clothes stained with blood. Driving a station wagon the same as the stolen Ryen. Is not it strange that the police have overlooked such important details. "The police was under pressure to solve the crime.
It has fabricated evidence, "said William Fletcher, one of the judges who have taken to heart the case. The charge is serious, but well founded. On T-shirt found at the scene of the massacre was found the blood of Kevin Cooper. But this finding was also a chemical used to preserve blood in test tubes.
Sign, probable, that the blood taken to Cooper, when arrested, was then poured on the T-shirt murderer. E 'for clues such as these that the supporters of the innocence of Cooper were certain grace. But Schwarzenegger is hidden behind the formula of the "case that requires further study" (in his last day in office, but the ex-Terminator has found a way to reduce the sentence to the son of his political ally, condemned for murder) .
Cooper remains in prison. Should be put to death in 2011, but hopes that something will happen. His lawyer has said the failure to so gracefully. "It 's all very simple. There is a horrific massacre of a white family. And there is a black convicted. " 30% of people put to death in the United States since 1976 are blacks.
The murderess of a white three more chance of being sentenced to death than the killer of a black man. Roberto Festa
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