NEW VOICES: Former FBI Agent Now Opposes Death Penalty, Seeks Exoneration of California Death Row Prisoner Kevin Cooper

During his 45 years in law enforce­ment, includ­ing 24 years with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, homi­cide inves­ti­ga­tor Tom Parker (pic­tured) changed his view on the death penal­ty. ​“There were times dur­ing my career when I would glad­ly have pushed the but­ton on a mur­der­er,” he said. ​“Today, my posi­tion would be, life with­out parole.” Parker says that see­ing cor­rupt homi­cide inves­ti­ga­tions con­vinced him that inno­cent peo­ple could be exe­cut­ed. As result, he now oppos­es cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and is sup­port­ing California​’s Justice That Works Act, a bal­lot mea­sure that would repeal the death penal­ty. Parker says the worst case of police mis­con­duct he has seen in a cap­i­tal case is that of California death row pris­on­er Kevin Cooper. Parker has re-inves­ti­gat­ed the case pro bono for five years in an effort to free Cooper. ​“I’m con­vinced he was framed. We arrest and con­vict inno­cent peo­ple almost every day in this coun­try. As long as we have a death penal­ty in America, we will con­tin­ue to exe­cute inno­cent peo­ple.” Cooper was sen­tenced to death for four 1983 mur­ders, and has com­plet­ed his appeals, mean­ing that he could be exe­cut­ed if California resumes lethal injec­tions. Parker says Cooper’s con­vic­tion was a result of ​“police tun­nel vision” — mak­ing the evi­dence fit the sus­pect, rather than seek­ing a sus­pect who fit the evi­dence. Working as a con­sul­tant with Cooper’s attor­neys, Parker has found wit­ness­es who say they saw three white men, two of whom wore blood-spat­tered cloth­ing, act­ing strange­ly at a bar near the crime scene on the night of the mur­ders. The ini­tial state­ment from the one sur­vivor of the crime point­ed to three white men as the per­pe­tra­tors, but Cooper is black. Cooper recent­ly received sup­port from the American Bar Association in his efforts to receive clemen­cy from Governor Jerry Brown.

(M. Burns, ​“From FBI Boss to Death Penalty Foe,” Santa Barbara Independent, July 7, 2016.) See New Voices and Innocence.