American Bar Association Urges Reprieve to Allow Full Investigation of Kevin Cooper’s Innocence Claims

American Bar Association President Paulette Brown has sent a letter to California Govenor Jerry Brown urging him to grant a reprieve to death row inmate Kevin Cooper to permit a full investigation of Cooper’s possible innocence. The ABA President wrote: “Mr. Cooper’s arrest, prosecution, and conviction are marred by evidence of racial bias, police misconduct, evidence tampering, suppression of exculpatory information, lack of quality defense counsel, and a hamstrung court system. We therefore believe that justice requires that Mr. Cooper be granted an executive reprieve until the investigation necessary to fully evaluate his guilt or innocence is completed.” The ABA letter described Cooper’s case as “a particularly unique example of a criminal justice system falling short at every stage” and referenced a ruling by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights that Cooper’s conviction and sentence violated his human rights. Cooper has exhausted all appeals in his case, but evidence that was previously suppressed as a result of official misconduct raises questions about his guilt. New evidence includes a statement by the surviving victim that the perpetrators were white or Hispanic (Cooper is black); police destruction of a pair of blood-spattered overalls before testing could take place; and unreliable forensic testing that may indicate evidence contamination. In 2009, five judges of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dissented from the court’s decision to uphold Cooper’s conviction, writing, “The State of California may be about to execute an innocent man.” The ABA letter agrees, asking Gov. Brown to use his clemency power to review the case: “We request that you grant this reprieve and order a meaningful investigation into Mr. Cooper’s case to prevent the possibility of a miscarriage of justice—one that can never be undone.”

The ABA does not take a position on the death penalty, but Ms. Brown said, “we have a strong interest in ensuring a fair and accurate justice system.”

(M. Neil, “ABA urges California governor to grant ‘executive reprieve’ to convicted murderer,” ABA Journal, March 16, 2016.) Read Paulette Brown’s letter to Gov. Jerry Brown. See Innocence, Race, and Prosecutorial Misconduct.