Welcome to yet another gullible story about Kevin Cooper, who is on San Quentin’s death row for the brutal 1983 slayings of Chino Hills chiropractors Doug and Peggy Ryen, their daughter Jessica, 10, and Christopher Hughes, 11, who was sleeping over with his friend Josh, 8, who was left for dead.
But first, this is how professionals should write about Cooper.
Kevin Cooper is still guilty; that's a 'Death Row' story
July 24, 2015Updated: July 24, 2015 4:28 p.m.
Last year, CNN’s “Death Row Stories” ran an episode about a California woman convicted of first-degree murder, then freed when a federal judge overturned the verdict because prosecutors withheld evidence. I had a few issues with the episode, in part because Gloria Killian was not tried for capital murder and never spent a minute on Death Row. I wrote at the time, CNN should rename the series, narrated by capital-punishment opponent Susan Sarandon, “Death Row Propaganda.”
From the latest pack-journalism piece:
Cooper “ has always protested his innocence since being arrested for the horrific murders of four people in 1983.”
Why are Cooper’s consistent protestations of innocence supposed to change how we see the case? After all, the only other scenario would be that Cooper admitted he was guilty and then changed his mind.
Then there’s the glossed-over rape issue.
Cooper was captured after a couple boating at Santa Cruz had returned to town and recognized his photograph on a wanted poster. They contacted authorities, and the young woman told officers Cooper had raped her. This rape accusation, which was never formally charged, contributed to Cooper being sentenced to death.
The writer went the long way to get to the rape, mentions that Cooper wasn’t tried for the rape – probably, because he killed the Ryens and Chris Hughes. The story omits the fact that at the time of the Ryen murders, Cooper also was wanted for a different rape before the Ryen murders.
I am guessing that Cooper boosters like to gloss over the rapes because these attacks force them to argue that Cooper was falsely accused of four murders and two separate rapes.
The author also writes about a former FBI guy who has been part of Cooper’s defense team.
“I continued going through these cases to see if I could figure something out that would be a plausible motive,” said Parker, “number one, for the murders, because it didn’t make a lot of sense that Cooper would have committed these murders; and number two, a plausible basis to prove that he was in fact wrongfully convicted and that somebody else did it.”
No plausible motive? And this guy worked for the FBI.
How about: escaped convict knows he’ll go back to prison if he’s caught and he’ll be sent to a more secure facility when they realize the escaped inmate was in minimum security because he used a phony name.
And the Ryens have a station wagon that made for a handy getaway vehicle.
Gov. Gavin Newsom should stop feeding the Cooper-is-innocent club. He is painting himself into a corner for a violent, repeat offender.
Debra J. Saunders is a fellow at the Discovery Institute's Chapman Center for Citizen Leadership. Contact her at dsaunders@discovery.org.