Posted on 02/06/2004 1:29:40 PM PST by COEXERJ145
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A federal court ruled on Friday that lethal injection does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment, clearing the way for the execution next week of a man convicted of hacking four people to death.
Kevin Cooper, 46, is due to be executed on Tuesday for using a hatchet and buck knife to kill two parents, their 10-year-old daughter and her friend in 1983. He says he is innocent. If the execution goes through it will be California's first in just over two years and the 11th since 1976.
"There also appear to be questions concerning the underlying conviction that have been and continue to be the subject of impassioned debate," U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel in San Jose, California wrote in his decision.
"The present case, however, concerns the discrete question of whether Plaintiff has met the legal standing for enjoining California's use of lethal injection as a method of execution," he continued.
"Because the Court finds and concludes that Plaintiff has not met this standard and has delayed unduly in asserting his claims ... a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction is denied."
Some opponents of capital punishment have rallied behind Cooper, including civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, who was due to meet him on Friday.
Yet California's Supreme Court and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger have decided against delaying the execution of a man convicted in 1985 and shown to be at the scene of the crime in subsequent 2002 DNA tests.
"Evidence establishing his guilt is overwhelming," Schwarzenegger said last week in his first review of a death penalty conviction since taking office in November.
Cooper has spent time on and off in correctional facilities since he was a youth and escaped a dozen times. After one escape, he raped a women, according to court documents. On his last crime spree, he escaped from a minimum security area of a prison and went on the murderous rampage in the home of the Ryen family in Chino, California.
The Ryens' son, Joshua, was also stabbed but survived. Now 29, he favors the execution. "I really want him to die, not only for what he did to me and my family but because he tormented me so much with his claim of innocence," Ryen wrote in a letter to prosecutors.
Cooper's lawyers argue that new evidence justifies delaying the execution.
Although there are 634 death row inmates in California, more than any other state, executions in the country's most populous state are infrequent compared to Texas and Oklahoma.
Maybe we should start executing murderers in the same method they seemed to approve of themselves.
This turd should have been executed 20 years ago.
No, it should always be much, much worse.
I'll betcha two pesos this is the guy. Anyone know?
Leni
Susan Sarandon
Lanny Davis
Mike Farrell
and a few others
Take their argument that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger should order testing of Cooper's DNA to see if the test-tube blood preservative EDTA is present. You see, the DNA tests Cooper had demanded found his DNA in the Ryen home (which Cooper said he never entered), on cigarette butts in the Ryen car (which Cooper said he never drove) and on a T-shirt that also contained Douglas Ryen's blood.
In the same issue the Comical had an Editorial on trying to save this scumbag and give him a stay.
Ms. Saunders article made a lot of sense, primarily because she had proof on her side, not fantasy.
I object most strongly to your use of the term "Susan Saranwrap" in this context.
Saran Wrap is useful for something.
Amazing that Jesee Jacka$$' name keep showing up with other bottom feeders.
Reuters strikes again.
The judge did not conclude, as Reuters headline asserts, that lethal injection does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment.
The judge only concluded that in this particular instance the defendant did not present sufficient legal persuasion that he should be granted relief under the protection of this concept which the judge acknowledged was the subject of impassioned debate.
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