CA: Family hatchet murder: Supreme court ruling may/may not help (Kevin) Cooper

Death Row inmate Kevin Cooper will likely be unaffected by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling Monday that gives wider latitude to condemned prisoners who wish to challenge the methods most states use to carry out executions. Cooper, who is on Death Row for the 1983 hatchet murders of four people in Chino Hills, still has no execution date set while he waits for a federal appeals court to weigh the validity of his conviction.

Meanwhile, all executions have already been on hold in California since February pending the appeals of another Death Row inmate who claimed the state's lethal injection procedures amount to cruel and unusual punishment.

A federal judge has scheduled hearings in the case of Michael Morales, and no executions are likely to take place in the state until his case is first resolved.

Cooper has been convicted of the murders of Douglas and Peggy Ryen, their 10-year-old daughter, Jessica, and 11-year-old houseguest Christopher Hughes. All four were attacked in the middle of the night as they slept in the Ryen family home.

The slayings occurred several days after Cooper escaped from the nearby California Institution for Men state prison.

Cooper was almost executed two years ago, but a federal appeals court spared him in the final hours and ordered hearings on his claims that police framed him for the killings. His appeals continue.

A federal judge in San Diego upheld his conviction in April 2005, and his attorneys appealed that ruling to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Attorneys for both sides have submitted hundreds of pages of briefings to a three-judge panel of the appeals court and are now waiting for the court's response.

The court could do anything from immediately halting Cooper's efforts to ordering a whole new round of evidentiary hearings.

Selections from the statement by the sole survivor.

The first time I met Kevin Cooper I was 8 years old and he slit my throat. He hit me with a hatchet and put a hole in my skull. He stabbed me twice, which broke my ribs and collapsed one lung. I lived only because I stuck four fingers in my neck to slow the bleeding, but I was too weak to move. I laid there 11 hours looking at my mother who was right beside me.
(snip)
I don't want to be here. I came because I owe it to my family, who can't speak for themselves. But by coming I am acknowledging and validating the existence of Kevin Cooper, who should have been blotted from the face of the earth a long time ago. By coming here it shows that he still controls me. I will be free, my life will start, the day Kevin Cooper dies. I want to be rid of him, but he won't go away.

I've been trying to get away from him since I was 8 years and I can't escape. He haunts me and follows me. For over 20 years all I've heard is Kevin Cooper this and Kevin Cooper that. Kevin Cooper says he is innocent, Kevin Cooper says he was framed, Kevin Cooper says DNA will clear him, Kevin Cooper says blood was planted, Kevin Cooper says the tennis shoes aren't his, Kevin Cooper says three guys did it, Kevin Cooper says police planted evidence, Kevin Cooper gets another stay from another court and sends everyone off on another wild goose chase.

The courts say there isn't any harm when Kevin Cooper gets another stay and another hearing. This just shows they don't care about me, because every time he gets another delay I am harmed and have to relive the murders all over again. Every time Kevin Cooper opens his mouth everyone wants to know what I think, what I have to say, how I'm feeling, and the whole nightmare floods all over me again: the barbecue, me begging to let Chris spend the night, me in my bed and him on the floor beside me, my mother's screams, Chris gone, dark house, hallway, bushy hair, everything black, mom cut to pieces saturated in blood, the nauseating smell of blood, eleven hours unable to move, light filtering in, Chris' father at the window, the horror of his face, sound of the front door splintering, my pajamas being cut off, people trying to save me, the whap whap of the helicopter blades, shouted questions, everything fading to black.

Every time Cooper claims he's innocent and sends people scurrying off on another wild goose chase I have to relive the murders all over again. It runs like a horror movie, over and over again and never stops because he never shuts up. He puts PR people on national television who say outrageous things and then the press wants to know what I think. What I think is that I would like to be rid of Kevin Cooper. I would like for him to go away. I would like to never hear from Kevin Cooper again. I would like Kevin Cooper to pay for what he did.

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