My letter to Ahnold re: Kevin Cooper

[acmavm]

Governor Schwarzenegger:

I am sending the e-mail in the hopes that it will be one of many that convinces you to stop the execution of Kevin Cooper next Tuesday. This execution must be stopped. There are far too many reasons to mention here, but the biggest one, the most important one, is that there is too much evidence against Mr. Cooper being guilty. Too many people have come forward with evidence against other people. The only survivor of that night has repeated over and over that it was three other men that committed the crime. She was found clutching blond human hairs in her hand. Blond hairs. Mr. Cooper is a black man. She has told everyone, over and over, that three Latino or White men committed the crime. Why does no one want to listen to the words of the only survivor of this horrible, bloody massacre?

The girlfriend of one of the men who probably committed this heinous crime turned over bloody clothing to the police, which mysteriously disappeared two weeks later, and she even said that he was involved. Kevin Kuhn, a friend of this man, while in jail confessed to being involved in the murder of the Ryan family along with this guy, and he knew details that only someone who was involved could possibly have known.

All this evidence was kept from the jury that deliberated this case. In fact, six of the jurors have already told you that had they known about these facts, their verdicts would have been totally different. The great Constitution of the United States of America guarantees everyone a 'fair trial'. This trial can in now way, shape, or form be called 'fair'. It was a travesty and a sham. A convenient way for police officials to improve their statistics of cleared crimes.

This is not a matter of compassion, this is not a matter of being against the death penalty. This is purely an instance of the likelihood that the State of California will be putting an innocent man to death. Can you live with that on your conscience? I couldn't. I don't understand how any decent, rational, compassionate, moral human being could let this obscene act be carried out without a thorough and fair hearing of all the evidence and testimony against Kevin Cooper's guilt be heard.

We tell ourselves that we live in a country that abides by the rules of truth and justice. If Kevin Cooper is put to death on Tuesday, that will prove that we are just a bunch of bloodthirsty thugs who don't care who we kill, as long as we get our 'pound of flesh' from someone. The world is watching you and waiting to see what you will do. Please, please, make the right decision. Do not execute this man, reopen the investigation. Many innocent people have been freed from death row because of faulty evidence, poor police investigations, and poor representation at trials. DNA evidence has proven that we have made many serious and potentially tragic mistakes when we sentence people to death. At the very least, open a new, fair, impartial investigation so that the country, and the world, can see that we don't put people to death just so that the police and district attorney's and judges in this country can say that they've cleared another case off the books.

Just so you know, I am not anti-death penalty. I am a firm believer that there are some cases that fully warrant removing a person from this earth because they have forfeited their right to life because of their actions.

Please, let me beg you one more time, reinvestigate this case. You have nothing to lose, and everything to gain. Surely you don't want to be equated with Bush* as when he mocked the pleas of Karla Fay Tucker when she was going to her death, do you?

Sincerely,

[disenfranchised]

1. Great letter, but...

unless you included a $500 donation, you are not worthy of the governor's time.

[LSparkle]

2. Bravo! New evidence just came out ...

that San Bernardino police planted evidence in Kevin's case. One of his lawyers is being interviewed on KPFK (L.A.) right now and is saying that a female reporter who covered the case in San Diego was told by a SB cop that evidence was planted. I cannot believe that Governator isn't at least willing to take another look at everything before they commit this miscarriage of justice.