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| Supreme Court Upholds Killer's Stay |
| By Reuters |
| Published: 02/10/2004 |
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A killer, whose claims of innocence rallied some celebrities to his side while infuriating relatives of the victims, gained a last-minute delay against his execution on Monday after a fierce legal battle. In a 9-2 ruling, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay of execution to allow lawyers for Kevin Cooper, who was convicted of hacking four people to death in 1983, time to submit more materials to a lower court. "We hold that Cooper is entitled to file a second or successive application," ruled an 11-judge panel, on Monday. His execution was scheduled at 12:01 a.m. PST Tuesday. Hours before the lethal injection was to be administered, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a request by California's Attorney General, Bill Lockyer, to overturn the 9th Circuit ruling and allow the execution to proceed. Cooper was convicted in 1985 for the hatchet, knife and ice pick murders of a couple, their 10-year-old daughter and her friend. He was scheduled to become the first person put to death by the state of California in two years. The ruling cited questions about Cooper's shoes, unexplained blond hair found in a victim's hands and contradictory statements from the lone survivor of the slaughter, Josh Ryen, who was eight when his family was murdered. |
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