California Gov. Gavin Newsom Orders Investigation into Kevin Cooper Capital Murder Conviction

California Governor Gavin Newsom has ordered an inde­pen­dent inves­ti­ga­tion into the case of Kevin Cooper, who has con­sis­tent­ly main­tained his inno­cence in the 1983 quadru­ple-mur­der for which he was sen­tenced to death. Newsom’s May 28, 2021 exec­u­tive order appoints the law firm Morrison and Foerster, LLP as Special Counsel to the California Board of Parole Hearings and directs the firm to ​“con­duct a full review of the tri­al and appel­late records in [Cooper’s] case and of the facts under­ly­ing the conviction.” 

Newsom’s order — issued in con­junc­tion with 14 par­dons, 13 com­mu­ta­tions, and 8 med­ical reprieves grant­ed in oth­er cas­es — directs Morrison and Foerster ​“to inves­ti­gate, report, and make a rec­om­men­da­tion” con­cern­ing Cooper’s appli­ca­tion for clemen­cy and claims of inno­cence. It also spec­i­fies that the fir­m’s inves­ti­ga­tion include an ​“eval­u­a­tion” of ​“recent­ly con­duct­ed DNA tests.”

Cooper was con­vict­ed in 1985 of the mur­ders of Doug and Peggy Ryen, their 10-year-old daugh­ter Jessica Ryen, and 11-year-old neigh­bor Chris Hughes. Joshua Ryen, then 8 years old, was the sole sur­vivor of the crime and told inves­ti­ga­tors that three white men had com­mit­ted the mur­ders. Several wit­ness­es report­ed see­ing three white men dri­ving a car that fit the descrip­tion of the Ryens’ stolen vehi­cle on the night of the mur­ders, while oth­er wit­ness­es at a near­by bar report­ed that three white men in bloody clothes had been act­ing strange­ly on the night of the crime. Despite this evi­dence, Cooper, a Black man, became the lead sus­pect. After see­ing Cooper’s pho­to on tele­vi­sion, Joshua Ryen said he was not the killer. 

According to Newsom’s order, Cooper main­tains that evi­dence at his tri­al was ​“man­u­fac­tured, mis­han­dled, plant­ed, tam­pered with, or oth­er­wise taint­ed by law enforcement.” 

Cooper filed for clemen­cy in 2016. In December 2018, then-Governor Jerry Brown ordered new DNA test­ing of cer­tain items of evi­dence. Newsom ordered addi­tion­al test­ing in February 2019. Newsom’s recent order said an inde­pen­dent inves­ti­ga­tion was nec­es­sary to resolve the ​“stark­ly dif­fer­ent views” of Cooper’s attor­neys and the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office ​“regard­ing how the results [of the DNA test­ing] should be inter­pret­ed and the reli­a­bil­i­ty and integri­ty of certain evidence.” 

Those dif­fer­ing views were evi­dent in state­ments released by each side, react­ing to the news of Newsom’s order. ​“We are grat­i­fied that the gov­er­nor has ordered an inde­pen­dent inves­ti­ga­tion,” said Norman Hile, an attor­ney rep­re­sent­ing Cooper. ​“We are con­fi­dent that a thor­ough review will demon­strate that Kevin Cooper is inno­cent and should be released from prison.” By con­trast, the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office issued a state­ment say­ing it ​“dis­agrees with the governor’s deci­sion to refer Kevin Cooper’s con­vic­tion to spe­cial coun­sel.” District Attorney Jason Anderson told the Los Angeles Times, ​“There are no unan­swered ques­tions. So for this to be ordered is inappropriate.”

Cooper’s case has attract­ed nation­al atten­tion, espe­cial­ly fol­low­ing a 2018 New York Times inves­ti­ga­tion by colum­nist Nicholas Kristof, which high­light­ed the evi­dence for Cooper’s inno­cence. Then-Senator Kamala Harris told the New York Times that she regret­ted her deci­sion as California Attorney General to deny Cooper’s request for DNA test­ing. In a Facebook post, she said, ​“As a firm believ­er in DNA test­ing, I hope the gov­er­nor and the state will allow for such test­ing in the case of Kevin Cooper.” The NAACP Legal Defense Fund sent a let­ter to Governor Newsom in March 2021 urg­ing an inves­ti­ga­tion into Cooper’s case. ​“Mr. Cooper is a Black man who has served over 35 years on death row, notwith­stand­ing seri­ous con­cerns about the integri­ty of the state’s case and the risk that it was marred by racial dis­crim­i­na­tion. The grave doubts about Mr. Cooper’s guilt have only wors­ened over time,” the letter stated.

The phys­i­cal evi­dence showed that the four vic­tims had been stabbed or slashed a com­bined 140 times with an ice pick, a hatch­et, and at least one knife, a crime, Kristof said, that no sin­gle per­pe­tra­tor, much less the 155-pound Cooper, was like­ly to have car­ried out alone. The Ryens’ car was recov­ered 30 miles from the crime scene with blood on the driver’s seat, the front pas­sen­ger seat, and the back seat, con­sis­tent with an offense involv­ing three killers. Police destroyed cloth­ing belong­ing to anoth­er pos­si­ble per­pe­tra­tor before it could be tested. 

DNA test­ing found Cooper’s blood, con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed with a chem­i­cal used in pre­serv­ing blood sam­ples, on oth­er cloth­ing report­ed­ly worn by the killer, sug­gest­ing that the blood had been plant­ed. The lab then test­ed the sam­ple of Cooper’s blood held by the sheriff’s office and dis­cov­ered that it con­tained mul­ti­ple blood types, sug­gest­ing that the sam­ple had been topped off with some­one else’s blood. Police also ​“found” oth­er evi­dence pur­port­ed­ly link­ing Cooper to the mur­ders in loca­tions that police reports from pri­or search­es had indi­cat­ed con­tained no incriminating evidence. 

Executions in California have been offi­cial­ly on hold since Governor Newsom declared a mora­to­ri­um in 2019. Though the state has the largest death row in the nation, the last exe­cu­tion in California took place in 2006.