This piece was reprinted by OpEd News with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.
Late at night on June 4, 1983, Doug and Peggy Ryen, their daughter and house guest were brutally murdered in their home. Their eight year old son, Josh, suffered severe injuries but survived. According to the above dissenting judges:
"The victims had numerous chopping, cutting and stabbing injuries, caused by several different kinds of weapons," including ones inflicted after they died. "Two days earlier, (Cooper) had escaped from the minimum security section of the nearby California Institute for Men (CIM)....by walking across an open field. He had been serving a four-year sentence for burglary."
He stayed in a vacant house near the Ryens, and according to the State, "acted alone in killing the four victims....to facilitate his escape," although for what purpose wasn't plausibly explained.
Cooper testified that after two days he left the house at night and hitchhiked to Mexico. "There is undisputed evidence that (he) registered at a hotel in Tijuana at 4:30 PM on June 5....The Ryens' white wood-paneled station wagon had been parked in (their) driveway (with) the keys in the ignition, throughout the entire evening of June 4. On June 11, (it) was discovered in the parking lot of a Long Beach church, where it had been for several days. Tijuana is 125 miles south of the Ryen house. Long Beach is 45 miles west (of it)."
Clear Evidence Suggests Other Killers
Shortly before his scheduled execution date, Cooper's now-retired CIM prison warden, Midge Carroll, provided a sworn declaration saying that her staff informed her that shoes issued prisoners "were not prison manufactured or specially designed prison-issue shoes (but, rather, were) common tennis shoes available to the general public through Sears and Roebuck and other such retail stores."
She told investigators prior to trial, and it was critical to Cooper's defense. Key to prosecutorial charges was that "identical shoeprints at the crime scene and in the house where Cooper had been staying were made by Pro-Ked Dude tennis shoes, and that these shoes were distributed only to prisons and other institutions."
According to the dissenting judges:
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
4
4
3
