Kevin Cooper is Guilty
Kevin Cooper was found guilty for the 1983 murders of Chino Hill chiropractors Doug and Peggy Ryen, their daughter Jessica, 10, and sleep-over guest Christopher Hughes, 11. Son Josh Ryen was left for dead.
The case against Cooper was overwhelming. He had escaped from a nearby prison and was staying at a house near the Ryen home. His DNA was found in a blood smear on the wall in the Ryen home and in the family station wagon that had been used as a getaway car.
Just before Memorial Day weekend, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order directing the law firm of Morrison and Foerster to conduct "an independent investigation" into Cooper's case because prosecutors and defense hold "starkly different views regarding how the results should be interpreted. Why would Newsom do that considering that a jury found Cooper guilty, courts upheld the conviction and evidentiary hearings did not go well for him — the subject of a recent column?
In 1991, the California Supreme Court summed up Cooper’s guilt below (in italics).
As you read, ask yourself why capital punishment opponents* would choose this of all cases to fight the death penalty. One conclusion: Facts don’t matter.
First, there was the fact of defendant's escape and hiding out at the house nearest the crime scene at precisely the time of the crime. Defendant left the house the very night of the murders. The Ryen house could be seen from [53 Cal. 3d 837] the Lease house. Since defendant's telephonic appeals for help had proved vain, he desperately needed a means to get out of the area, a means the Ryen station wagon could provide. The hatchet that was one of the murder weapons came from within the Lease house, near the window through which the Ryen house was visible. The sheath for this hatchet was found on the floor of the very room defendant slept in. Items that could have been the remaining murder weapons were missing from the Lease house.
In addition to these circumstances, there was the strong shoe print comparison evidence, the cigarette and tobacco comparison evidence, the match between defendant's blood type and the drop of blood in the Ryen house that was not from a victim, the bloodstained prison issue button on the Lease house floor, the bloodstained rope (not defendant's blood, consistent with a victim's blood) found in the closet of the bedroom defendant used, the blood in the Lease house shower and elsewhere, the hair comparisons, and the other evidence summarized earlier in this opinion.
It is utterly unreasonable to suppose that by coincidence, some hypothetical real killer chose this night and this locale to kill; that he entered the Lease house just after defendant left to retrieve the murder weapons, leaving the hatchet sheath in the bedroom defendant used; that he returned to the Lease house to shower; that he drove the Ryen station wagon in the same direction defendant used on his way to Mexico; and that he happened to wear prison issue tennis shoes like those of defendant, happened to have defendant's blood type, happened to have hair like defendant's, happened to roll cigarettes with the same distinctive prison issue tobacco, and so forth. Defendant sought to discredit or minimize each of these items of evidence, but the sheer volume and consistency of the evidence is overwhelming. Error in admitting the exhibit would have been harmless even if it had not been withdrawn.
(*In earlier version, I mistakenly wrote capital punishment supporters when I meant opponents.)
Debra J. Saunders is a fellow at the Discovery Institute's Chapman Center for Citizen Leadership. Contact her at dsaunders@discovery.org.