U.S. High Court Won’t Take Execution Case

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to consider whether a federal court of appeals overstepped its bounds by sparing the life of convicted quadruple killer Kevin Cooper hours before he was to be executed by lethal injection.

The refusal means that further DNA testing in the case will go ahead.

“We are gratified that the Supreme Court has rejected the [state] attorney general’s efforts to execute Kevin Cooper before a full and fair hearing on the serious questions about his guilt,” said David Alexander, Cooper’s attorney.

In 1983, Cooper had escaped from state prison in Chino and hidden in a small house in Chino Hills. Two days later, he entered the home next door and, using a hatchet and knife, killed Douglas and Peggy Ryen, their 10-year-old daughter, Jessica, and an 11-year-old houseguest, Christopher Hughes, the jury found.

Eight-year-old Josh Ryen survived, despite a slit throat.

Cooper was convicted and scheduled to be executed at San Quentin State Prison on Feb. 9.

On the evening of Feb. 8, a three-judge panel from the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2 to 1 that the execution should proceed. The dissenting justice, however, requested that the issue be placed before a special panel of that court.

That 11-member panel convened the next morning and halted the execution, urging more scientific testing in the case. In a majority decision, Judge Barry Silverman said Cooper was “either guilty as sin or he was framed by the police. There is no middle ground.”

The California attorney general’s office argued to the U.S. Supreme Court that the involvement by the 9th Circuit’s special panel was an inappropriate step that increased “the opportunities for federal courts to engage in protracted inquiries that serve only to undermine the state’s interest in finality.” The 9th Circuit panel called for a federal judge to preside over DNA testing of hairs and blood.

Milt Silverman, attorney for Josh Ryen, said the Supreme Court’s decision didn’t surprise him.

“We’ve been prepared for this to be a long haul,” he said.