DNA testing for Kevin Cooper
2004Rebecca Doran 2004-07The page as the paper published it (Wayback Machine) →
From the paper's own web edition, recovered from the Internet Archive: the text as the paper put it online, not machine-read. The printed issue of July 2004 is not held.
by Rebecca Doran
Last month, U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn Huff ordered limited DNA testing on evidence that could prove that San Quentin death row inmate Kevin Cooper is innocent of the grisly 1983 murders of the Ryen family and a houseguest in San Bernardino County, Calif.
Cooper, who was slated for execution by lethal injection on Feb. 10, was granted a stay of execution by the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals just hours before the state of California planned to end his life. The intervention by the higher court allowed the case to be sent back to the District Court on the grounds that critical exculpatory evidence had not been heard.
Judge Huff ordered mitochondrial DNA testing of three hairs found stuck to the bodies of the victims. She also ordered two clumps of hair found in one victim’s clutched hand to be examined for other individual hairs that would be suitable for similar testing. However, the tests will be carried out on far fewer hairs than Cooper's attorneys had requested.
Judge Huff also denied Cooper’s request to have a bloody T-shirt that was found at the scene of the crime and linked to Cooper through DNA tested for a crime lab preservative.
On June 28 and 29, two witnesses took the stand supporting the defense’s claim that the crime was committed by a group of men, not including Cooper.
Both claimed that they recalled seeing a group of unknown men in a local bar on the night of the murders, and one of the strangers had blood on him. Other witnesses in the trial, testifying for the prosecution, told police they remembered seeing the men that night, but did not notice blood.
On June 29, another witness expected to testify on Cooper’s behalf was a no-show in court. Cooper’s attorneys searched throughout the night to find the man, but were unsuccessful. Judge Huff set a new hearing date of July 23 to take testimony from the man, giving attorneys three weeks to search. The judge on that date may also announce the results of DNA tests performed on the hair evidence.