American Bar Association Supports Death Row Case Review

Death Row prisoner Kevin Cooper, whose convictions for the murders of a married couple and two children are hotly contested by his lawyers but backed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, has gained support from the president of the American Bar Association, who has told Newsom that prosecutors apparently withheld evidence from the governor’s legal team.

“Given the numerous errors that have occurred throughout the history of the investigation and prosecution of this case, including major pieces of physical evidence that the State concedes were destroyed rather than preserved and tested, it is particularly important that there be full disclosure of the remaining records,” Mary Smith, a Chicago attorney and president of the nation’s largest legal organization, said in a letter to Newsom last week on behalf of the ABA. “I urge you to take action to ensure that the State discloses all relevant evidence and that any such evidence is evaluated before acting on Mr. Cooper’s petition for executive clemency.”

Among the documents withheld, the ABA president said, were records of “multiple physical pieces of evidence from the crime scene,” Josh Ryen’s “initial description of his attackers,” and “police files regarding alternate suspects."

"Without transparency about law enforcement’s original investigation of the case, confidence is undermined in any conclusions drawn, whether by judge, jury, or special counsel,” Smith wrote.

Cooper, now 65, was convicted and sentenced to death for the fatal stabbings of Doug and Peggy Ryen, their 10-year-old daughter, Jessica Ryen, and 11-year-old house guest Christopher Hughes at the Ryens’ home in Chino Hills in 1983. Two days before the killings, Cooper had escaped from a nearby state prison, where he was serving a sentence for burglary.

His appeals have been rejected by state and federal courts. But a 2009 decision against Cooper by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals drew a 101-page dissent from five judges, led by William Fletcher, who said they had reason to believe officers had “manipulated and planted evidence” against Cooper. And in 2015 the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights issued a 32-page report concluding that the state had “violated Mr. Cooper’s right to due process and a fair trial.”

Newsom ordered an investigation of Cooper’s case in May 2021 by the Morrison & Foerster law firm, which he described as an independent counsel. In January, the firm issued a 243-page report saying the evidence of Cooper’s guilt was “extensive and conclusive.” Cooper’s legal team issued a rebuttal report in October saying the study commissioned by Newsom was “riddled with confirmation bias” and had brushed aside evidence that the Ryens’ 8-year-old son, Josh, who survived the attacks, had identified the attackers as three white men. Cooper is Black.

The rebuttal also said prosecutors at Cooper’s trial had not disclosed that a paroled murderer, Lee Furrow, had been seen wearing bloodstained coveralls in the area soon after the killings. Six months later, a sheriff’s deputy questioned Furrow about the coveralls, then threw them into a dumpster without testing them. 

In an interview on Death Row, Cooper stated "The ABA doesn’t normally come out on behalf of any inmate,” he said. “And they’ve done so twice in my case. It should let everyone know there is something wrong with this case. Somebody needs to listen. More people are helping me now than ever before because they see the truth. And the truth will win out. The truth is there. We just keep fighting.”

You can read Cooper's interview with Death Penalty Focus, an organization committed to the abolition of the death penalty through public education, grassroots and political organizing, media outreach, and domestic and international coalition building.