CA: Attorney General appeals (Kevin) Cooper decision - Argues panel exceeded authority

Inland Valley Daily Bulletin ^ | March 17, 2004 | ROD LEVEQUE

[calcowgirl]

The California Attorney General appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday challenging a lower court ruling that halted the execution of Death Row inmate Kevin Cooper last month.

The attorney general's petition does not challenge the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal's rationale for halting the execution, but rather claims the appellate court lacked the jurisdiction to stop it in the manner in which it did.

"If courts can ignore the law during these 11th-hour, last ditch efforts to halt executions, murder victims' family members and loved ones will be left with little solace, knowing a closure to their grief could be suspended time and time again," Bill Lockyer said in a written statement.

Cooper was set to die by lethal injection Feb. 10 for the 1983 murders of four people inside a Chino Hills home.

Douglas and Peggy Ryen, their 11-year-old daughter, Jessica, and 10-year-old guest, Christopher Hughes, were stabbed and hacked to death. Joshua Ryen, 9, survived a slashed throat.

Cooper has maintained his innocence, and claims that additional testing of evidence in his case will exonerate him.

An 11-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stopped the execution Feb. 9, eight hours before it was to take place, ruling that more testing should be done on certain pieces of evidence to confirm Cooper's guilt before he is put to death.

That ruling came one day after a three-judge panel of the same court ordered the execution to go forward.

The attorney general claims the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 authorizes only the three-judge panel to decide whether to grant such an 11th hour appeal and prohibits any rehearing of that panel's decision.

Lockyer argues in legal papers that the 11-judge panel exceeded its authority in deciding for itself to reconsider Cooper's claims.

Cooper's attorneys could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Cooper was the first Death Row inmate in the state to receive post-conviction DNA testing on evidence against him. That testing tended to confirm his guilt.

He now claims that blood evidence linking him to the crimes was planted, and that a cluster of hair found in a victim's hand could lead to another suspect.

He wants testing done on the blood that could show whether the sample contains a preservative commonly used by crime labs. He also wants mitochondrial DNA testing done on the cluster of hairs.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has sent Cooper's case back to the U.S. District Court in San Diego to hash out those issues. A hearing has been set for April 2 in Judge Marilyn Huff's courtroom.

The proceedings in San Diego will move forward while the attorney general's appeal is pending in the U.S. Supreme Court.

Rod Leveque can be reached by e-mail at r_leveque@dailybulletin.com or by phone at (909) 483-9325.

[Congressman Billybob]

This is an interesting case. The Ninth Circuit decision will apply to very few other cases. However, based on what's in this article, the Ninth Circuit did again in this case, deliberately violate the laws it sits to enforce. (Congress does have the power to limit reconsideration of convictions by the federal courts. It did so. Then the out-of-control Ninth ignored that.

Congressman Billybob

Click here, then click the blue CFR button, to join the anti-CFR effort (or visit the "Hugh & Series, Critical & Pulled by JimRob" thread). Please do it now.