JOIN EFFORTS TO SAVE KEVEN COOPER'S LIFE

The International Action Center asks everyone to please support these important activities by attending and distributing this information widely.

STOP THE EXECUTION! END THE RACIST DEATH PENALTY!

WHAT: Kevin Cooper is scheduled to die at 12:01 AM on Tuesday February 10^th, 2004. The Governor can grant a stay of execution at anytime before that time.

Join a protest to Save the life of Kevin Cooper Near the Doorstep of Gov. Schwarzenegger

Schwarzenegger unilaterally denied clemency without a normal hearing, as is the custom in California. Call on the governor to reconsider his unorthodox decision, which failed to consider the wishes of at least five jurors from Cooper's death penalty trial who want the execution halted while previously-ignored evidence in he case is examined.

WHEN: 5 PM Sunday February 8th

WHERE: Near Home of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Mandeville Canyon Rd and Chalon Rd.

DIRECTIONs: 405 Fwy, Exit Sunset Blvd. West on Sunset 4-5 miles to Mandevile North on Mandeville Canyon Rd 1.6 Miles to Chalon Rd.

BRING SIGNS and Your Letters for the Govenor.

WHY: Nationwide, prosecutors have had the wrong man in 112 capital murder cases, forcing innocent men and women to spend years on death row facing execution for crimes they did not commit.

On February 10, the state of California plans to execute Kevin Cooper, a 45-year-old African American man who has been on death row for 20 years and whose case raises numerous questions about California's capital punishment system.

On the night of June 4, 1983, Peggy, Doug and Jessica Ryen and a houseguest were brutally murdered in San Bernadino County. The youngest member of the family, Josh Ryen, 8, managed to survive. When local police learned that Kevin Cooper had walked off the grounds of a minimum security prison just days before the murders, Cooper became the primary suspect - despite the fact that Josh Ryen told police and his grandmother that three white or Latino men had killed his family.

The State of California conducted DNA tests on Cooper, but the integrity of this evidence is highly questionable. Blood and saliva samples taken at the time of his arrest were released to a technician involved in the prosecution, and held for twenty-four hours without a court order or the knowledge of Cooper's legal team.

Clumps of long, blond hair were found in the hands of one of the victims. Photographs of this hair, which clearly does not belong to Cooper, were never shown to the jury. The prosecution has refused to allow testing that could determine just whose hair it is.

A pair of bloody coveralls submitted to the police by a woman claiming that they had been left at her house by her boyfriend around the time of the murders were tossed in a dumpster without any testing. The woman was never brought in to testify.

Sponsored by the National Lawyers Guild-LA and the Rainbow Sisters Project ###

VIGIL FOR KEVIN COOPER

KEVIN COOPER IS SCHEDULED TO BE EXECUTED ON FEBRUARY 10 AT 12:01 A.M.

 JOIN US FOR A RALLY, MARCH and VIGIL

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 9
RALLY AT 7:00 P.M. WESTWOOD FEDERAL BUILDING
11000 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90024
(Corner of Veteran)

MARCH AT 8:30 P.M. to ST. ALBANS CHURCH for a VIGIL 580 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024

PARTICIPANTS WILL STAY UNTIL 12:01 A.M. OR WORD OF A STAY OF EXECUTION

CONTACT GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER

Governor Schwarzenegger Tel: (916) 445-2841
State Capitol Building Fax: (916) 445-4633
Sacramento, CA 95814 governor@governor.ca.gov