Act Now--Stop the Execution of Kevin Cooper

URGENT -FLOOD THE ATTORNEY GENERALS OFFICE, DEMAND NO APPEAL TO STAY OF EXECUTION

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has issued a stay of execution today for Kevin Cooper just a few hours before he was to be executed in San Quentin. This stay represents a temporary victory to people who are oppose to the racist death penalty and to all of those who are demanding a new trial for Kevin Cooper based on the mountain of evidence indicating his innocence.

The execution order is good for 24 hours starting 12:01 tonight Feb. 10, 2004. The stay can be over ruled by the courts at any moment during this time period so we must keep up the pressure by coming out to San Quentin tonight.

The state's Attorney General office is weighing its option to appeal the 9th Circuit Court's stay by petitioning the Supreme Court. We need to flood Bill Lockyer Attorney General's office with phone calls, fax, email right now. Send an email message, write a note and fax, and call state Attorney General Bill Lockyer's office and tell him: "I am calling to demand that the Attorney General does not appeal the stay of execution for Kevin Cooper to the Supreme Court. The Kevin Cooper case represents all of the flaws of the death penalty and should not take place."

CALL
1-916-324-5437
FAX
916-445-6749 E MAIL
bill.lockyer@doj.ca.gov

We know that it is not the courts who will gain the freedom of Kevin Cooper and the over 600 others on death row in California but the rising tide against the racist death penalty.

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This is Not My Execution by Kevin Cooper 29 Jan 2004

I, Kevin Cooper, am writing this from death row at San Quentin Prison. I am scheduled to be the next Black man executed by the state of California on February 10th, 2004.

While I am an innocent man about to be murdered by this state, I realize that innocence makes no difference to the people who control the criminal justice system, including this prison. This is the same system that has historically and systematically executed men, women and children who look just like me, if only because they can.

While it is my life that will be taken, and my body filled with poison, I will not say that this is my execution! That's because it is not, it is just a continuation of the historic system of capital punishment that all poor people all over this world have been and are subjected to.

To personalize this crime against humanity as "my execution" would be to ignore the universal plight, struggle and murder of poor people all over this planet we call Earth. This I cannot and will not do!

If I must be murdered by the state, then I will do so with my dignity in tact. This guilt that the criminal justice system has put on me will be questioned by anyone and everyone who finds out the whole truth of this case.

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