Assemblyman, attorney clash in Kevin Cooper case

Assemblyman Curt Hagman, R-Chino Hills, wrote an op-ed piece last week in the Daily Bulletin calling for an execution date for Kevin Cooper, the man convicted of killing four people in Chino Hills in the early 1980s.

In today's newspaper, Cooper's attorney, Norm Hile, called Hagman's piece "reckless" and challenged him to a public debate on the case.

Here's Hagman's piece and Hile's response:

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Cooper's victims deserve justice now

Assemblyman Curt Hagman

Created: 03/02/2010 06:16:22 PM PST

On June 2, 1983, Kevin Cooper escaped from the California Institution for Men at Chino where he was serving time for burglary. Making his way to a vacant Chino Hills home, he hid there and plotted his escape. Feeling the need to run away from the immediate area, Cooper made the fateful decision to break into a nearby home. On June 4, he savagely murdered Chino Hills residents Doug and Peggy Ryen, their 10-year-old daughter, Jessica, and 11 year-old neighbor Christopher Hughes. He also left 8-year-old Josh Ryen for dead. Then Cooper stole the family's station wagon for his escape to Mexico.

After a massive seven-week manhunt by law enforcement, Cooper was finally arrested. In 1985, Cooper was found guilty of the four murders and was sentenced to death. He has pursued numerous appeals and made claims of a frame-up. Time and time again, his appeals were found to be without merit and consequently rejected. In 2004, Cooper claimed that DNA tests would prove his innocence. Instead, they conclusively placed him in the Ryen home.

Cooper was scheduled to be executed on Feb. 10, 2004, 21 years after the brutal murders. However, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals gave Cooper a reprieve on a technicality. After more legal maneuvers, the U.S. Supreme Court, 26 years after the murders, gave the last word and denied Cooper's petition for another appeal.

Or was it the last word? Cooper's execution date still has not been scheduled, and there is no indication that it will be anytime soon. He is a death row inmate who has been incarcerated for nearly three decades, from the time when Jerry Brown was still governor.

Cooper has been allowed to enjoy almost 27 more years of life by the courts, which is 27 years more than his victims were allowed to live.

With murderers like Cooper spending decades on death row, the inexplicable delay of justice is adding more anguish to the victims' families and eroding the effectiveness of our strong public safety laws. This is unacceptable. California's death penalty process must be expedited, and we must start by setting an execution date for Kevin Cooper.

Cooper has shown no remorse, and with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger affirming the death penalty as a necessary and effective deterrent, it is time for Cooper to receive the punishment reserved for the worst killers. As the Assembly member for the 60th District, I have called on the governor to set an execution date for Cooper to bring closure to this extremely tragic case. Our community demands justice, and I am confident that the governor will reach the same conclusion and enforce the law.

Since his initial conviction, Kevin Cooper has received the due process he was entitled to. Now it is time for the state of California to deliver the justice it promised his victims and their families. Anything less would deepen the pain of the families and make a mockery of our justice system.

Assemblyman Curt Hagman, R-Chino Hills, represents the 60th District and is vice chairman of the Assembly Public Safety Committee.

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Reckless call for execution

Created: 03/07/2010 05:24:28 PM PST

State Assemblyman Curt Hagman's March 3 opinion piece ("Cooper's victims deserve justice now") urged that an execution date be set for Kevin Cooper, a death-row inmate who has yet to get a fair hearing. Assemblyman Hagman's reckless call for an execution date ignores substantial evidence showing that Kevin is innocent of the crime for which he is now sentenced to die.

I can only assume that Assemblyman Hagman does not know that five federal judges found evidence that "the State of California may be about to execute an innocent man" because of multiple instances of police and prosecutorial misconduct, including evidence that: (1) Local police destroyed and planted evidence; (2) Local police lied in their testimony; (3) Local police and prosecutors unconstitutionally withheld evidence from Kevin's lawyers at trial; and (4) Local police and prosecutors misrepresented and shaped witness testimony.

I challenge Assemblyman Hagman to meet me for a one-on-one public discussion of these facts before he rushes the execution of an innocent man. The governor, Attorney General Brown and the public deserve to know the truth, and Kevin deserves the fair trial he never received.

What California needs is for more witnesses to come forward with additional evidence proving Kevin's innocence, not reckless calls to kill an innocent man.

NORM HILE
Sacramento

The writer is Kevin Cooper's attorney and is working with the Northern California Innocence Project to prevent his execution.