The Post is slipping. Normally they'd include many more sly references to Ahnuld's movie career.
Posted on 01/31/2004 2:53:51 AM PST by kattracks
Edited on 05/26/2004 5:19:21 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Holy crap! I just moved to Chino Hills! It was 20 years ago but damn...
The Post is slipping. Normally they'd include many more sly references to Ahnuld's movie career.
Like the need for term limits for politicans - death row inmates should be limited to 3 appeals. 20 years is WAAAAAAY too long for this slime to kept alive.
Gotta love where these "celebrities" stand when it comes to crime. :-/
| Date of scheduled execution | State | Victim name | Inmate name | Status |
| February 10, 2004 | California | Douglas Ryen Peggy Ryen Jessica Ryen, 10 Christopher Hughes, 11 |
Kevin Cooper | pending |
| A San Diego judge set a Feb. 10 execution date for Kevin Cooper, who was convicted of the 1983 murders of two adults and 2 children near the Southern California prison from which he had just escaped. Cooper, 45, will be the first death row inmate to seek clemency from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who, like all his predecessors since 1992, supports capital punishment. Cooper, who claims he is innocent, has filed a long series of state and federal court appeals, all unsuccessful, and also obtained DNA testing of evidence at the crime scene, which failed to clear him. Shortly before the hearing to set Cooper's execution date, the state Supreme Court denied his request to fire his attorneys but allowed two new defense lawyers to enter the case. Attorney David Alexander of San Francisco said he had been brought in to assist in Cooper's case by the Innocence Project, which works to free the wrongfully imprisoned. The courts that have reviewed the case, however, have expressed no doubt about Cooper's guilt. Cooper escaped on June 2, 1983, from a state prison in Chino (San Bernardino County), where he was serving time for burglary. He hid in a small vacant house near the family's home in nearby Chino Hills until, on the night of June 4, he committed what the California Supreme Court called a "nocturnal massacre," hacking to death Douglas and Peggy Ryen, their 10-year-old daughter Jessica and houseguest Christopher Hughes. The Ryens' 8-year-old son, Joshua, was seriously wounded but survived. Cooper used a hatchet, a knife and an ice pick in the horrific attack. Cooper, arrested in Mexico after an aggressive manhunt, was tried and convicted in San Diego, where the case was transferred because of pretrial publicity. The state Supreme Court, in a 1991 ruling, called the case against him overwhelming and said he was tied to the crime by evidence that included shoeprints in the house and prison-issued tobacco in the Ryens' car. Cooper and his supporters have stressed that Joshua Ryen, the only surviving witness, told an officer he believed three Latino men who came to the house during the day were the attackers. Defense advocates also pointed out that blond hair, which could not have belonged to the African American defendant, had been found in Jessica Ryen's hand. But defense hopes to prove Cooper's innocence were dashed last year after a new state law allowed convicted felons to request DNA tests of critical evidence. Cooper was one of the first to be tested, and the attorney general's office reported that his DNA was found in a blood spot in the Ryens' house and other evidence near the scene. Attorney General Bill Lockyer and San Bernardino District Attorney Dennis Stout announced that testing was performed on a drop of blood found in the Ryen home, two cigarette butts found in the Ryens’ vehicle (which was believed to have been used as the getaway vehicle), and a bloodstained t-shirt found near the Ryen home. Lockyer said DNA tests indicated a single person was linked to each of the items tested, and indicated Cooper was that person. Cooper's attorneys contended the evidence had been mishandled and might have been tampered with, but a judge rejected their claim, and the state Supreme Court refused to review it. At the vacant house, a blood-stained khaki green button identical to the buttons on field jackets issued at the state prison from which Cooper escaped was found on the rug. Tests revealed the presence of blood in the shower and bathroom sink of the vacant home, and hair found in the bathroom sink was consistent with that of Jessica and Doug Ryen. A bloodstained rope in the house bedroom was similar to a bloodstained rope found on the Ryens' driveway. A hatchet covered with dried blood and human hair that was found near the Ryens' home was missing from the vacant house, and the sheath for the hatchet was found in the bedroom where Cooper stayed. Buck knives and at least one ice pick were also missing from the vacant home, though a strap from one buck knife was found on the floor. Blood found in the Ryens' home was the victims', except for one drop on a wall near where the murders occurred. It belonged to an African-American male, which Cooper is. Two partial shoe prints and one nearly complete shoe print found in the Ryens' house were consistent both with Cooper's size and the Pro Ked shoes issued at CIM. The Ryens' vehicle, which had been parked outside their house, was missing when the bodies were discovered but was later found in Long Beach. A hand-rolled cigarette butt and "Role-Rite" tobacco that is provided to inmates at CIM (but not sold at retail) was in the car. Similar loose leaf tobacco was found in the bedroom of the house where Cooper had stayed. A witness testified that Cooper smoked handrolled cigarettes using Role-Rite tobacco. A hair fragment discovered in the car was consistent with Cooper's pubic hair and a spot of blood found in the car could have come from one of the victims but not from Cooper. Cooper was charged with four counts of first degree murder and one count of attempted murder in the first degree, and with escape from state prison. He pled guilty to escaping from state prison. On February 19, 1985, a jury convicted Cooper of the first degree murders of Franklyn Douglas Ryen, Jessica Ryen, Peggy Ann Ryen and Christopher Hughes, and of attempted murder in the first degree of Joshua Ryen. The jury also found true the special circumstance of multiple murders, as was the allegation that Cooper intentionally inflicted great bodily injury on Joshua Ryen. The jury then determined the penalty as death on the four murder counts. Defense lawyers could seek federal court review of the issue but have not yet done so and have no other legal challenges pending. Robert Amidon, Cooper's longtime lead attorney, said Wednesday that some court action would be taken to fight the execution, but gave no details. Cooper did not attend Wednesday's hearing before Superior Court Judge William Kennedy, who scheduled the execution on the date requested by prosecutors. Joshua Ryen, now 28, and the parents of murder victim Christopher Hughes were present, said Deputy Attorney General Holly Wilkens. Outside the courtroom Wednesday, Joshua Ryen, the son who survived, kissed Christopher's mother on the cheek as they hugged. "I'm glad you've grown up so nicely," MaryAnn Hughes said. "Your parents would be proud of you." Bill Hughes, whose 11-year-old son Christopher was one of the four people killed by Cooper, told reporters, "We're finally getting to some form of conclusion, although I'm still wary of how many more hoops we'll have to jump through." Hughes said, "It's been proven he did it. Frankly, I feel people need to pay for their acts, and he has nothing to give but his life." Hughes said he intends to travel to San Quentin to watch the man who killed his son receive society's ultimate punishment. His wife, Mary Ann, said she wanted Cooper to die, but does not want to see it. "I don't need to watch," she said. "I just need it to happen." Mary Ann Hughes said she is weary from 20 years of reliving the loss of her son. She said the frequent newspaper and television reports chronicling Cooper's legal journey have slowed the healing process for her, her husband and their two surviving children. "We need this to stop," she said. "My family needs this to stop." Holly Wilkens said, "We expect nonstop efforts to get this date set aside…. They'll throw everything but the kitchen sink at us." Cooper was arrested two months after the killings, when he was found living on a houseboat and using the name Angel Jackson. Because of the savagery of the attack - Douglas incurred 37 stab wounds; his wife Peggy, was stabbed 32 times; his 10-year-old daughter, was stabbed 46 times, the houseguest Christopher received 26 stab wounds and Cooper also inflicted chopping wounds to the head, and stabbing wounds to the throat, of eight-year-old Joshua Ryen, who survived - Cooper’s defenders claim Cooper could not have committed the murders. When Cooper was first arrested in California on the burglary offense, he was an escapee from the Pennsylvania State prison system according to San Bernardino Chief Deputy District Attorney John Kochis, who was one of the original prosecutors on the Cooper case. Cooper entered the California prison system as David Trautman, an assumed name. “I don’t know if the people who support him are aware of his history in Pennsylvania,” Kochis said. In addition to his escape from prison, Cooper was wanted for assaulting a young woman in that state. Kochis said Cooper kidnapped, raped and stabbed the young woman and left her for dead. Because Cooper received a death sentence in California, Pennsylvania authorities “elected not to return him” to that state for prosecution, Kochis said. | ||||
Cut off his fingers and toes one by one then draw and quarter him.
Sean Penn, Richard Dreyfuss and Denzel Washington should get the lethal injection.
These people need to cross the street and ask Ben Stein how he feels about crime. Unlike them, he was actually home-invaded, and feels very differently.
Same thing here in NYC. We get the likes of Susan Sarandon protesting the NYPD, calling them "murderers" and wanting to, essentially, neuter them while she'll never have to ride a subway at night or try to hail a cab on a deserted street late at night or worry about being followed into her walk-up because there's no doorman.
Then again, I also remember when we had a mayor who used city money to pay to send a drug dealer's body back to his country of origin and then for the funeral -- after the illegal alien had been killed in a shoot-out with the cops.
You've got to wonder how anyone can publicly support a man who hacked several people to death. Dreyfuss had written such an eloquent tribute to Charlton Heston ("He's not Moses, but he's Something Else"), that I thought his synapses were firing correctly these days. Guess he's been dragged back down into the pit of liberal activism.
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