WEBVTT - #244 Jason Flom with Kevin Cooper 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:07.080 On Saturday, June fourth, nineteen eighty three, and Chino Hills, California, 0:00:07.120 --> 0:00:11.119 the Ryan family, Doug Peggy, their children, Jessica and Joshua, 0:00:11.280 --> 0:00:14.480 as well as their neighbour's son, Christopher Hughes, were violently 0:00:14.520 --> 0:00:18.040 attacked in the Ryan home. Only eight year old Joshua 0:00:18.120 --> 0:00:21.960 Ryan survived, and at the hospital he described the perpetrators 0:00:22.040 --> 0:00:25.880 as three white or Hispanic men. At the same time, 0:00:26.040 --> 0:00:29.080 Kevin Cooper, a black man, had recently escaped from a 0:00:29.120 --> 0:00:31.680 nearby prison and had holed up in a vacant house 0:00:31.720 --> 0:00:34.400 near the Ryan home. When the police learned of the 0:00:34.440 --> 0:00:38.880 prison break, they disregarded the witnesses and tips corroborating josh 0:00:38.960 --> 0:00:42.239 Ryan's description in favor of the theory that one of 0:00:42.240 --> 0:00:46.360 the prison escapees was responsible, and as pressure mounted to 0:00:46.400 --> 0:00:50.240 solve the case with an election fast approaching, Kevin Cooper 0:00:50.320 --> 0:00:54.440 became an easy scapegoat for the sheriff. Under the DA's orders, 0:00:54.480 --> 0:00:58.120 the crime scene was dismantled and moved to a warehouse, 0:00:58.280 --> 0:01:02.360 rendering forensic testing us useless. The prosecution's case a trial 0:01:02.480 --> 0:01:06.360 was riddled with inconsistencies and problematic evidence, but with a 0:01:06.440 --> 0:01:11.200 poorly prepared defense attorney and hidden or destroyed exculpatory evidence 0:01:11.480 --> 0:01:14.160 that jury convicted Kevin of the murders and he was 0:01:14.240 --> 0:01:17.759 sentenced to death. We're joined by Kevin and his attorney 0:01:17.800 --> 0:01:20.959 Norman Hile, to discuss the status of his case, as 0:01:21.000 --> 0:01:24.560 well as the proven evidence tampering misconduct by the Sheriff's 0:01:24.560 --> 0:01:28.520 department and compelling alternate suspects that should have ended any 0:01:28.560 --> 0:01:33.119 suspicion into Kevin Cooper back in nineteen eighty three. This 0:01:33.640 --> 0:01:51.640 is wrongful Conviction. Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction today's episode. 0:01:51.800 --> 0:01:54.280 I'm going to say this case is as troubling as 0:01:54.360 --> 0:01:57.800 any case I've ever heard of, and I've been doing 0:01:57.840 --> 0:02:01.920 this work for a long, long long time. And with 0:02:02.160 --> 0:02:06.240 me today of course the man himself, Kevin Cooper, who 0:02:06.320 --> 0:02:09.960 has lived and continues to live through this nightmare, as 0:02:09.960 --> 0:02:14.320 well as his attorney Norman Hyle of Oric Harrington and Sutcliffe. 0:02:14.840 --> 0:02:18.600 So Norm, welcome to rafel Conviction. Really glad to have 0:02:18.680 --> 0:02:22.160 you here. It's great to be here and coming to 0:02:22.280 --> 0:02:26.400 us from inside the walls of San Quentin, where he 0:02:26.480 --> 0:02:29.799 remains to this very day. We have Kevin Cooper, Kevin, 0:02:29.880 --> 0:02:33.360 I'm so sorry here joining us from where you're at 0:02:33.680 --> 0:02:36.480 where you never belonged in the first place. We don't 0:02:36.480 --> 0:02:39.680 belong now, but I'm very honored to have you here 0:02:39.720 --> 0:02:40.440 with us. 0:02:40.800 --> 0:02:41.880 Thank you for having me. 0:02:42.639 --> 0:02:46.240 This case involves layers and layers of misconduct and incompetence 0:02:46.280 --> 0:02:50.640 that would be funny if it wasn't so sick. I mean, 0:02:51.160 --> 0:02:54.280 you're going to hear about so many instances in which 0:02:54.360 --> 0:02:58.400 evidence was either altered, planted, or tampered with that you're 0:02:58.440 --> 0:03:01.840 going to find it hard to belie leave. But if 0:03:01.840 --> 0:03:05.280 it wasn't borne out by the evidence, Norman wouldn't risk 0:03:05.360 --> 0:03:08.280 his career to say it here today on the show. 0:03:08.560 --> 0:03:12.919 And this case also involves one of the most terrifying 0:03:13.040 --> 0:03:16.080 crimes I'm going to say in the history not just 0:03:16.120 --> 0:03:19.360 of California, but of this entire country. I mean, this 0:03:19.480 --> 0:03:23.920 is reminiscent of Charles Manson, the Tate LaBianca murders, and 0:03:24.040 --> 0:03:27.520 others that have made it into the popular consciousness. And 0:03:27.560 --> 0:03:30.280 what's even worse, if you can imagine that, is that 0:03:30.280 --> 0:03:34.400 the three white or Hispanic perpetrators who are actually responsible 0:03:34.440 --> 0:03:38.120 for this twisted scenario never were brought to justice because 0:03:38.160 --> 0:03:43.840 the police targeted Kevin Cooper, who is neither white nor Hispanic, 0:03:43.920 --> 0:03:47.480 but a black man. And there's not three of him, 0:03:47.520 --> 0:03:51.400 There's only one. And so before I lose my mind here, Kevin, 0:03:51.640 --> 0:03:55.520 let's go back before all of the circumstances that led 0:03:55.520 --> 0:03:58.720 to this web of total insanity. I mean, can you 0:03:58.800 --> 0:04:01.720 tell us about your early life. You were born Richard 0:04:01.720 --> 0:04:04.680 Goodman in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and then you were adopted by 0:04:04.760 --> 0:04:06.200 Melvin and Esther Cooper. 0:04:06.240 --> 0:04:09.920 Is that correct, Yeah, sir, that's correct. Growing up with 0:04:10.080 --> 0:04:12.800 my adoptive family, it was what it was. I mean, 0:04:12.920 --> 0:04:15.280 they were a good family. My own issue that I 0:04:15.360 --> 0:04:18.719 have with them, and basically what my adoptive father was 0:04:18.760 --> 0:04:22.159 that he was a disciplinarian and he used to violently 0:04:22.240 --> 0:04:26.000 beat me for things that all kids do. And I 0:04:26.000 --> 0:04:28.480 couldn't take that beating. My body couldn't take that beating. 0:04:29.200 --> 0:04:32.120 So over time, as early as seven years old, I 0:04:32.160 --> 0:04:34.200 was running away from home, and of course, if you 0:04:34.279 --> 0:04:36.320 run away from home, if you're out on the streets 0:04:36.640 --> 0:04:39.039 as a child, you have to eat. So I was 0:04:39.080 --> 0:04:42.000 stealing to eat, you know, and then it's just one. 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:45.640 Thing there to another, right, so you're out there, you know, 0:04:45.760 --> 0:04:48.680 fending for yourself as early as seven years old, which 0:04:48.839 --> 0:04:51.080 led to a number of run ins with the law, 0:04:51.160 --> 0:04:54.920 from petty thefts and things like that, to stay, let's 0:04:54.920 --> 0:04:57.920 face it, clothed and bed and to meet your basic 0:04:57.960 --> 0:05:02.400 survival needs. And obviously lift is a crime. But when 0:05:02.440 --> 0:05:04.839 life deals you a hand like you got, you had 0:05:04.880 --> 0:05:08.120 to do what you did to survive. And importantly, none 0:05:08.120 --> 0:05:10.320 of it was violent, and none of it makes you 0:05:10.360 --> 0:05:12.560 a murderer or a candidate for death row. 0:05:13.240 --> 0:05:16.640 You know, they always trying to find the dead and people, right, 0:05:16.680 --> 0:05:19.520 they're morally good people and we're more than bad people, 0:05:19.920 --> 0:05:23.360 especially when you're poor and you're black. I don't apologize 0:05:23.400 --> 0:05:25.440 for those things I did as a child because I 0:05:25.480 --> 0:05:28.200 didn't know better. And for a child to teach yourself, 0:05:28.520 --> 0:05:30.920 what what do you need parents for? My parents didn't 0:05:30.960 --> 0:05:33.200 teach me. So the people on the street topey how 0:05:33.240 --> 0:05:35.039 to steal cars, how to get out of the rain, 0:05:35.120 --> 0:05:37.360 how to get out of the cold. You know, I 0:05:37.400 --> 0:05:40.240 don't justify it, but I don't apologize for it. And 0:05:40.320 --> 0:05:42.400 I'll be darned if I'm going to let anybody make 0:05:42.440 --> 0:05:45.240 me feel bad about it, because that was just my life. Man. 0:05:45.880 --> 0:05:48.480 So in nineteen eighty two, you picked up a burglary, 0:05:48.560 --> 0:05:51.960 right and in order to avoid prison, you pretended to 0:05:52.000 --> 0:05:54.719 be mentally incompetent and unfit to stand trial, which puts 0:05:54.720 --> 0:05:59.039 you in Mayview State Hospital in Pennsylvania. And at this 0:05:59.160 --> 0:06:02.400 point you'd been there before because of drugs, and you 0:06:02.440 --> 0:06:04.640 had noticed that it would be pretty easy to escape from. 0:06:04.920 --> 0:06:07.520 And here's a key part of the story. While you 0:06:07.560 --> 0:06:09.520 were there, you picked up a driver's license for a 0:06:09.560 --> 0:06:12.280 man named David Troutman. And when you escape from the 0:06:12.320 --> 0:06:15.280 facility and with some help made your way off to California, 0:06:16.279 --> 0:06:19.440 you passed yourself off as this David Troutman guy, right. 0:06:20.120 --> 0:06:23.640 Right, Because at that time, driver's license didn't have photos on. 0:06:24.000 --> 0:06:26.839 It was just a name and a data both and 0:06:27.720 --> 0:06:30.920 your driver's license ID number, but there was no photo. 0:06:31.320 --> 0:06:33.760 Yeah, it's crazy to think about that, no picture on 0:06:33.800 --> 0:06:37.360 a driver's license. It seems like a different era entirely, 0:06:37.400 --> 0:06:40.360 which it was. But anyway, so you're in California and 0:06:40.400 --> 0:06:42.960 you're doing what you needed to do to survive. What 0:06:43.040 --> 0:06:45.160 you know how to do is survive, and once again 0:06:45.200 --> 0:06:48.320 you're arrested for burglary there, but this time as David Troutman, 0:06:48.760 --> 0:06:52.239 and that leads to your incarceration at the California Institute 0:06:52.240 --> 0:06:56.360 for Man. Otherwise, notice CIM in Chino, California, again under 0:06:56.360 --> 0:07:00.560 this alias of David Troutman. So none of this makes 0:07:00.600 --> 0:07:04.560 you a murderer, but it is really crazy, right, and 0:07:04.600 --> 0:07:09.400 now the story takes another crazy turn. It sounds like 0:07:09.440 --> 0:07:11.960 a movie. In June of nineteen eighty three, you escaped 0:07:12.000 --> 0:07:14.480 from that prison, which happened to be in the area 0:07:14.600 --> 0:07:18.720 of these absolutely horrendous murders. And from what I understand, 0:07:18.880 --> 0:07:21.120 it wasn't even that hard to escape. I mean, you 0:07:21.160 --> 0:07:24.080 didn't have to be Houdini, right, Yeah, June. 0:07:23.880 --> 0:07:26.960 Sit in nineteen eighty three, I was walking around in 0:07:26.960 --> 0:07:30.040 the prison, not in my finish, and I get to 0:07:30.320 --> 0:07:32.520 this one spot in fear. It was a big asshole 0:07:32.520 --> 0:07:34.080 in the fish. I didn't even think about it. 0:07:34.120 --> 0:07:37.320 I was gone, right, And then they searched for several 0:07:37.360 --> 0:07:40.520 hours and then gave up. Apparently Kevin, of course, now 0:07:40.640 --> 0:07:44.760 is out, but has no idea where to go, no money, 0:07:44.920 --> 0:07:47.600 never been in this area before except inside the prison. 0:07:48.240 --> 0:07:51.160 So he found his way to a bacont house in 0:07:51.200 --> 0:07:54.480 a residential area and spent two days hiding there before 0:07:54.560 --> 0:07:58.760 hitchhiking to Mexico on the evening of June fourth. Now 0:07:58.840 --> 0:08:00.960 it's worth noting, by the way, that in nineteen eighty 0:08:00.960 --> 0:08:06.880 three alone, fourteen prisoners escaped from this particular prison. That's insane. 0:08:07.240 --> 0:08:10.320 So this included, of course Kevin, as well as a 0:08:10.480 --> 0:08:14.240 guy named Ambloro Nori and Michael Martinez. You both escaped 0:08:14.280 --> 0:08:17.560 two days after Kevin on June fourth, nineteen eighty three, 0:08:18.000 --> 0:08:22.000 and that's an important date because the murders were getting 0:08:22.040 --> 0:08:25.160 ready to tell you about took place that very night 0:08:25.280 --> 0:08:27.800 on June fourth, nineteen eighty three. 0:08:28.640 --> 0:08:32.560 The family who was murdered was Doug and Peggy Ryan 0:08:32.880 --> 0:08:38.360 and their daughter Jessica, and a HouseGuest Christopher Hughes, who 0:08:38.440 --> 0:08:41.120 was there by chance that night spending the night, who 0:08:41.240 --> 0:08:43.120 was a friend of Josh Ryan's, the eight year old 0:08:43.200 --> 0:08:47.800 boy who survived. The Ryans were very strong people. Doug 0:08:47.880 --> 0:08:52.760 Ryan was a former military policeman and a chiropractor, and 0:08:52.920 --> 0:08:56.200 his wife, Peggy was not only a chiropractor, but she 0:08:56.640 --> 0:09:01.560 trained Arabian horses. However, both of Ryan's and their two 0:09:01.640 --> 0:09:07.600 children and Christopher Hughes were overwhelmed by three people who 0:09:08.080 --> 0:09:10.760 used three or four different weapons, and there were at 0:09:10.840 --> 0:09:14.160 least one hundred and forty four wounds on the victims. 0:09:14.600 --> 0:09:18.000 The adults, Mister and Missus Ryan were left in a 0:09:18.120 --> 0:09:21.800 posed position similar to the Tate La Bianca murders, as 0:09:21.880 --> 0:09:25.000 if to indicate there had been some sort of ritual 0:09:25.080 --> 0:09:27.080 going on as to how they were killed. 0:09:27.320 --> 0:09:31.160 Peggy had seventeen hatchet wounds to the face and head 0:09:31.200 --> 0:09:34.200 and four knife wounds to the chest. Jessica was stabbed 0:09:34.280 --> 0:09:38.720 forty six times with three different weapons. Douglas suffered thirty 0:09:38.800 --> 0:09:42.439 seven knife and hatchet wounds and a severed finger, and 0:09:42.559 --> 0:09:46.640 Christopher had twenty six stab wounds and numerous skull fractures 0:09:46.679 --> 0:09:48.320 and a severed finger as well. 0:09:48.600 --> 0:09:53.200 The sole survivor of this mayhem was Josh Ryan, who 0:09:53.240 --> 0:09:55.880 was eight years old, and he was found the next 0:09:55.880 --> 0:10:00.080 morning still alive when Christopher Hughes's father came to try 0:10:00.120 --> 0:10:04.600 to collect Christopher and discovered the victims in the Ryan's 0:10:04.840 --> 0:10:08.520 master bedroom in their home. Josh Ryan was still alive, 0:10:09.000 --> 0:10:11.520 although his throat had been cut. They were able to 0:10:11.840 --> 0:10:16.400 quickly take him to Loma Linda Hospital by helicopter and 0:10:16.559 --> 0:10:17.880 his life was saved. 0:10:18.080 --> 0:10:20.680 So this is a really horrifying crime. But then right 0:10:20.720 --> 0:10:23.800 away it seems like we see the police mishandling this 0:10:24.000 --> 0:10:28.600 case to an extreme and I'm talking about. Beginning with 0:10:28.679 --> 0:10:30.400 the initial investigation. 0:10:30.280 --> 0:10:35.480 The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department allowed over seventy people 0:10:35.559 --> 0:10:38.000 to walk through the crime scene during the first twenty 0:10:38.000 --> 0:10:41.800 four hours that the murders were discovered. The result of 0:10:41.840 --> 0:10:45.880 that was that most of the evidence was contaminated. What 0:10:46.040 --> 0:10:49.880 happened next is even more bizarre. The District Attorney for 0:10:50.040 --> 0:10:53.480 San Bernardino County decided that the best thing to do, 0:10:53.840 --> 0:10:56.400 perhaps to cover up the way in which the crime 0:10:56.440 --> 0:11:00.480 scene had been mishandled, was to completely tear down the 0:11:00.520 --> 0:11:03.600 crime scene, and the walls and the carpets and the 0:11:03.640 --> 0:11:07.080 furniture and everything was put into a storage facility that 0:11:07.080 --> 0:11:09.120 did not have air conditioning. And the result of that 0:11:09.280 --> 0:11:12.040 was that all of the blood evidence that was in 0:11:12.080 --> 0:11:15.080 what had been taken out of the Ryan bedroom became 0:11:15.360 --> 0:11:19.439 useless for purposes of trying to do chemical analysis of it. 0:11:20.160 --> 0:11:23.840 There couldn't be any analysis done of the blood spots 0:11:23.920 --> 0:11:26.520 and the way in which the bodies had moved, which 0:11:26.600 --> 0:11:30.120 might have been able to determine how many attackers there were, 0:11:30.320 --> 0:11:34.000 what snives and hatchets had been used by them, and 0:11:34.080 --> 0:11:38.160 how the victims had managed to fight back. All of 0:11:38.160 --> 0:11:42.359 that was lost when the district attorney ordered that the 0:11:42.520 --> 0:11:46.119 Ryan master bedroom be torn down and taken away. 0:11:46.640 --> 0:11:49.079 On the fifth, So, the day after the murders, a 0:11:49.160 --> 0:11:51.200 hatchet was found on the side of a road leading 0:11:51.240 --> 0:11:54.680 away from the Ryan's house. Forensics tested the hatchet, but 0:11:54.800 --> 0:11:58.000 they botched that as well, so any evidence from the 0:11:58.040 --> 0:12:01.000 hatchet was now rendered useless. You don't have to be 0:12:01.000 --> 0:12:03.760 a criminologist to know that this is a freaking disaster 0:12:03.880 --> 0:12:07.600 in the making. I mean, it's really sobering to think 0:12:07.640 --> 0:12:10.680 about the fact that they were willing to go to 0:12:10.800 --> 0:12:14.160 these extraordinary lengths to cover up the terrible incompetence in 0:12:14.200 --> 0:12:16.839 a case that should have been the number one priority 0:12:17.320 --> 0:12:21.240 to be solved. This is so troubling and it's a 0:12:21.240 --> 0:12:22.880 miracle that Joshua did survive. 0:12:23.200 --> 0:12:26.720 The reason that we know that there were three white 0:12:26.840 --> 0:12:30.040 or Mexican males who were the attackers is that josh 0:12:30.080 --> 0:12:33.360 Ryan was able to tell hospital staff and the Sheriff's 0:12:33.360 --> 0:12:37.040 department that within a few hours of when he was found. 0:12:37.160 --> 0:12:40.520 And there were other people that came forward. One neighbor 0:12:40.600 --> 0:12:45.200 actually reported to investigators having seen three white men driving 0:12:45.240 --> 0:12:48.160 away from the Ryan home after midnight on the night 0:12:48.240 --> 0:12:51.880 of the murders. Corroborating Josh Ryan's. 0:12:51.480 --> 0:12:56.640 Description, Yes, there were two different sightings of the Ryan 0:12:56.720 --> 0:13:00.800 station wagon speeding away from the Ryan home of the crimes, 0:13:01.440 --> 0:13:03.720 and the people who saw them saw that there were 0:13:03.720 --> 0:13:06.920 at least three people in the station wagon. In addition, 0:13:07.200 --> 0:13:10.319 that same night, a number of people in a local 0:13:10.600 --> 0:13:14.720 bar very close to the crime scene reported seeing three 0:13:14.920 --> 0:13:19.120 white men acting strangely in the bar, and late that 0:13:19.280 --> 0:13:22.559 night one of them came back in and was in 0:13:22.679 --> 0:13:25.640 coveralls that were covered in blood and in fact, the 0:13:25.760 --> 0:13:29.400 San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department issued a criminal bulletin on 0:13:29.720 --> 0:13:34.400 June seventh, which said the suspects were three either white 0:13:34.480 --> 0:13:37.920 or Mexican males, late teens or early twenties, wearing a 0:13:37.960 --> 0:13:41.080 white T shirt, a blue short sleeve shirt, a red 0:13:41.120 --> 0:13:44.880 long sleeve shirt, and Levi's So they had all of 0:13:44.880 --> 0:13:47.559 this information about who had committed this crime. 0:13:47.960 --> 0:13:51.400 Then. Seeing this bulletin, a woman named Diana Roper called 0:13:51.400 --> 0:13:53.760 the sheriff two days later to apport that her boyfriend 0:13:53.920 --> 0:13:57.640 Lee Furrow had come home get this around three am 0:13:57.720 --> 0:14:02.880 the night of the murders. To her, he had arrived 0:14:03.000 --> 0:14:06.760 in an unfamiliar station wagon with some people who stayed 0:14:06.800 --> 0:14:10.240 in the car. He changed out of his overalls, which 0:14:10.280 --> 0:14:14.120 he left on the closet floor. He was not wearing 0:14:14.200 --> 0:14:16.439 the blue T shirt that he had been wearing earlier 0:14:16.480 --> 0:14:19.920 that day. He left the house about five minutes later 0:14:19.960 --> 0:14:24.080 and didn't return. From what we understand, he then went 0:14:24.160 --> 0:14:26.480 on the lamb to San Diego. 0:14:26.760 --> 0:14:30.800 And she gave to the Sheriff's department a pair of 0:14:31.200 --> 0:14:34.840 coveralls that were covered in blood that her boyfriend had 0:14:34.960 --> 0:14:37.680 discarded when he came home about three o'clock in the 0:14:37.720 --> 0:14:41.440 morning the morning after the murders, and ultimately, because it 0:14:41.480 --> 0:14:45.560 was inconsistent with prosecuting, Kevin Cooper destroyed them without ever 0:14:45.720 --> 0:14:48.400 testing them to see whether or not the coveralls had 0:14:48.400 --> 0:14:49.480 the victim's blood on him. 0:14:50.040 --> 0:14:53.240 Okay, there's also this blue T shirt that was covered 0:14:53.280 --> 0:14:56.040 in blood that a woman found two days after the 0:14:56.120 --> 0:15:00.120 murder near the Canyon Corral bar near the crime scene. Well, 0:15:00.440 --> 0:15:03.480 if you remember the blue T shirt from the descriptions, 0:15:03.880 --> 0:15:08.200 Diana Roper also mentioned Lee Burrow missing his own blue 0:15:08.200 --> 0:15:10.560 T shirt that he had been wearing earlier that day. 0:15:10.960 --> 0:15:13.120 So this blue T shirt that was turned in was 0:15:13.160 --> 0:15:14.200 that ever tested? 0:15:14.920 --> 0:15:20.000 The sheriff's log reflects that the sheriff's deputy came to 0:15:20.040 --> 0:15:22.560 where the women had found the shirt and collected the 0:15:22.600 --> 0:15:26.600 shirt and the short sleeve blue shirt, which fits the 0:15:26.640 --> 0:15:30.320 description that Josh Ryan gave of one of the assailants 0:15:30.360 --> 0:15:33.960 disappeared and in fact they now claim that it never existed, 0:15:34.480 --> 0:15:37.720 even though their own log shows that they got a 0:15:37.800 --> 0:15:40.320 call about it and that they retrieved them. So they 0:15:40.320 --> 0:15:44.520 were willing to try to frame Kevin Cooper and to 0:15:44.520 --> 0:15:47.520 get rid of evidence that might have pointed them to 0:15:48.000 --> 0:15:58.240 other assailants. 0:15:59.800 --> 0:16:04.080 This episode is underwritten by AIG, a leading global insurance company. 0:16:04.440 --> 0:16:07.880 AIG is committed to corporate social responsibility and is making 0:16:07.920 --> 0:16:10.720 a positive difference in the lives of its employees and 0:16:10.760 --> 0:16:13.400 in the communities where we work and live. In light 0:16:13.520 --> 0:16:16.280 of the compelling need for pro bono legal assistance, and 0:16:16.320 --> 0:16:20.320 in recognition of AIG's commitment to criminal and social justice reform, 0:16:20.560 --> 0:16:24.360 the AIG pro Bono Program provides free legal services and 0:16:24.520 --> 0:16:35.240 other support to underrepresented communities and individuals. So there was 0:16:35.360 --> 0:16:38.880 overwhelming evidence mounting that a group of three white or 0:16:38.960 --> 0:16:43.280 Hispanic men were responsible. Meanwhile, there's the specter of this 0:16:43.480 --> 0:16:47.200 prison break. So the police were also following up on 0:16:47.320 --> 0:16:50.880 the theory that a recent escape bee from CIM might 0:16:50.920 --> 0:16:55.000 have been responsible, and when CIM officials gave them the 0:16:55.000 --> 0:16:57.560 info on all of the recent escapees, they found out 0:16:57.560 --> 0:17:00.560 that one of them, David Troutman will Not wasn't his 0:17:00.680 --> 0:17:04.600 real name, so as we know, that was Kevin's alias 0:17:04.640 --> 0:17:07.320 at the time, and so their focus turned away from 0:17:07.359 --> 0:17:11.600 Diana roper Lee Furrow, the bloody T shirt and coveralls, 0:17:12.000 --> 0:17:15.080 and all of the other evidence that corroborated Josh Ryan's 0:17:15.119 --> 0:17:18.280 description of a gang of three white or Hispanic men, 0:17:18.480 --> 0:17:21.480 and now they just turned to Kevin the lone black. 0:17:21.280 --> 0:17:25.000 Man com es cecil chill. Anyone who studies this case 0:17:25.840 --> 0:17:29.600 that one person who weighs one hundred and fifty five pounds, 0:17:30.040 --> 0:17:34.119 a skinny little kid, cannot murder four people want to 0:17:34.200 --> 0:17:35.080 kept their murder of. 0:17:35.080 --> 0:17:38.080 Fifth, the idea that three or four weapons were used, 0:17:38.080 --> 0:17:39.959 that there were one hundred and forty four wounds, that 0:17:40.119 --> 0:17:45.000 two adults were overcome. Both mister and Missus Ryan had 0:17:45.080 --> 0:17:47.960 loaded weapons at their bedside, and neither of them was 0:17:48.000 --> 0:17:50.880 able to get to those weapons when they were attacked, 0:17:51.240 --> 0:17:54.040 which clearly shows that they were more than one attacker. 0:17:54.520 --> 0:17:59.280 The fact that the Sheriff's department changed its story from 0:17:59.400 --> 0:18:03.119 being three whier Mexican men was that Kevin Cooper was 0:18:03.160 --> 0:18:07.840 a very convenient target. And at the time, the sheriff 0:18:08.280 --> 0:18:12.199 for San Bernardino County, a man named Floyd Tidwell, was 0:18:12.280 --> 0:18:16.080 running for sheriff that fall, and he needed to solve 0:18:16.119 --> 0:18:19.480 this crime as quickly as possible, and therefore Kevin Cooper 0:18:19.640 --> 0:18:21.360 became the convenient scapegoat. 0:18:21.760 --> 0:18:24.160 So now they began to try to find some evidence 0:18:24.200 --> 0:18:27.480 to support that theory. So they swept the area to 0:18:27.560 --> 0:18:30.199 Buying where Kevin had been hiding out after his escape, 0:18:30.280 --> 0:18:33.000 and the owner of that house, Larry Lease, who obviously 0:18:33.000 --> 0:18:35.600 had not been at home while Kevin was there, he 0:18:35.680 --> 0:18:37.920 called the police asking them to come by and check 0:18:37.920 --> 0:18:38.520 out the house. 0:18:39.119 --> 0:18:42.040 That's correct, and the first time that the Leae house 0:18:42.320 --> 0:18:47.240 was inspected after the crimes had been discovered, two detectives 0:18:47.440 --> 0:18:50.760 went into the house from the Sheriff's department. They didn't 0:18:50.800 --> 0:18:53.280 find anything, and they wrote a report saying they didn't 0:18:53.320 --> 0:18:56.760 find anything with respect to that might have tied Kevin 0:18:56.800 --> 0:19:00.200 to the crime. But the next day they went back 0:19:00.320 --> 0:19:03.240 and suddenly in a room that they had said they 0:19:03.240 --> 0:19:07.040 before had no evidence in it. There was a green 0:19:07.400 --> 0:19:10.399 prison jacket button on the floor in the middle of 0:19:10.440 --> 0:19:14.120 a carpet, and a hatchet sheath. The fact that they 0:19:14.160 --> 0:19:16.920 were not seen on the first inspection of the house 0:19:16.960 --> 0:19:19.439 and were seen for the second one says to us 0:19:19.520 --> 0:19:23.200 that they were planted. The green button, of course, didn't 0:19:23.280 --> 0:19:26.719 turn out to be consistent with what Kevin Cooper was wearing. 0:19:26.800 --> 0:19:31.960 There is testimony from a guard who saw Kevin having escaped, 0:19:32.200 --> 0:19:34.439 who reported that he was in a brown prison jacket, 0:19:34.440 --> 0:19:37.720 so the green button was clearly planted because the Sheriff's 0:19:37.720 --> 0:19:40.719 department didn't know what color jacket Kevin was wearing at 0:19:40.760 --> 0:19:44.840 the time. The hatchet sheath is clearly a hatchet sheaf 0:19:45.000 --> 0:19:47.720 for a hatchet that was kept at the Least house 0:19:48.400 --> 0:19:52.320 and that disappeared. The hatchet that was found outside the 0:19:52.400 --> 0:19:55.920 Ryan home that was one of the murder weapons was 0:19:55.960 --> 0:19:59.200 a different hatchet with a different color handle. But the 0:19:59.600 --> 0:20:03.119 prospers Jushon obviously wanted to try to tie Kevin to 0:20:03.200 --> 0:20:06.439 the crime by planting the hatchet chief that went with 0:20:06.600 --> 0:20:09.680 the hatchet from the Leice house in order to frame 0:20:09.800 --> 0:20:10.399 Kevin Cooper. 0:20:10.920 --> 0:20:14.560 There's literally no end to what they were willing to 0:20:14.640 --> 0:20:17.800 do in order to make sure that no justice was 0:20:17.840 --> 0:20:23.760 done in this case. Yeah wow. And while this horrible 0:20:23.840 --> 0:20:27.919 cover up of this ridiculously botched crime scene and investigation 0:20:28.080 --> 0:20:31.880 was going on, Kevin had hitchhike to Mexico, right, I mean, 0:20:32.480 --> 0:20:36.720 he's unaware of this quadruple murder, but he did still 0:20:36.880 --> 0:20:40.800 escape from prison. So he checked into a hotel in Tijuana, 0:20:41.359 --> 0:20:44.680 and there he befriended an American couple and he hitched 0:20:44.720 --> 0:20:47.359 a ride on their boat. He was arrested when they 0:20:47.400 --> 0:20:50.679 pulled into Pelican Bay, which is near Santa Barbara, and 0:20:50.720 --> 0:20:54.720 he sat in jail for about two years before even 0:20:54.760 --> 0:20:55.520 going to trial. 0:20:56.160 --> 0:20:59.880 So the one piece of evidence that the prosecution relied 0:20:59.920 --> 0:21:03.119 on Pond was a blood spot on a wall outside 0:21:03.320 --> 0:21:07.280 the Ryan bedroom, and that blood spot has been the 0:21:07.320 --> 0:21:12.080 source of dispute ever since. At trial, the Sheriff's Department 0:21:12.240 --> 0:21:17.760 forensic scientist said that the blood type matched Kevin Cooper's 0:21:17.800 --> 0:21:22.680 blood type, but when he was cross examined by defense counsel, 0:21:22.800 --> 0:21:25.760 it became clear that he had botched the test and 0:21:25.840 --> 0:21:29.040 gotten the wrong blood type to be a match to Kevin, 0:21:29.080 --> 0:21:33.199 and had changed his notes to make the blood type 0:21:33.240 --> 0:21:36.879 match Kevin, and that was shown to the jury. Meanwhile, 0:21:37.080 --> 0:21:40.639 that blood spot had been subjected to testing only by 0:21:40.640 --> 0:21:43.439 the prosecution, and it had been tested so much that 0:21:43.480 --> 0:21:45.439 it was exhausted, there was none left of it. 0:21:46.040 --> 0:21:49.840 So they changed the blood type to match Kevin Cooper. 0:21:50.080 --> 0:21:53.480 Exactly what in the war? They changed the freaking blood type? 0:21:53.760 --> 0:21:57.680 Who does these things? There's also some Harris found right 0:21:57.760 --> 0:22:00.520 that didn't match their narrative at all, but they didn't 0:22:00.520 --> 0:22:01.440 bring that up. Right. 0:22:01.880 --> 0:22:05.840 Jessica Ryan had hairs clutched in her hand when her 0:22:05.920 --> 0:22:09.560 body was found that were blonde in color, and the 0:22:09.680 --> 0:22:12.680 jury was never told that a trial. The prosecution didn't 0:22:12.720 --> 0:22:15.400 want that to be known, and the defense lawyer did 0:22:15.440 --> 0:22:17.800 not do a good job. Bear in mind, there were 0:22:17.840 --> 0:22:21.040 no hairs from an African American at the crime scene 0:22:21.080 --> 0:22:22.240 note ever found. 0:22:22.119 --> 0:22:25.439 And so the prosecution brings up the station wagon. Doesn't 0:22:25.440 --> 0:22:27.159 make a big deal that the blood evidence of the 0:22:27.160 --> 0:22:30.040 car clearly shows that three perpetrators had stained the seats 0:22:30.080 --> 0:22:35.600 beneath them. But they do bring up cigarette butts, cigarette 0:22:35.600 --> 0:22:40.639 butts that somehow were not found during the first inspection 0:22:40.920 --> 0:22:42.320 of the Ryan station wagon. 0:22:42.640 --> 0:22:45.119 The origin of those cigarette butts, of course, is the 0:22:45.160 --> 0:22:48.639 cigarette butts that they collected in the lease house after 0:22:48.680 --> 0:22:53.280 they inspected it, which disappeared, and then suddenly cigarette butts 0:22:53.320 --> 0:22:56.560 with Kevin's blood type bottom are discovered in the Ryan 0:22:56.640 --> 0:23:00.359 station wagon. There's another part to the forensic Marie ass 0:23:00.480 --> 0:23:03.520 that is this case, which is that at the lease 0:23:03.560 --> 0:23:09.399 house they tested the shower area for blood. The problem 0:23:09.480 --> 0:23:12.760 with that is that the test that they did is 0:23:12.800 --> 0:23:16.159 a test that could be showing either blood or bleach, 0:23:16.600 --> 0:23:20.520 and the woman who had left the lease house the 0:23:20.560 --> 0:23:24.600 week that the murders were committed testified that she had 0:23:24.720 --> 0:23:27.760 in fact cleaned the tub with bleach. So there was 0:23:27.800 --> 0:23:31.000 clearly that basis for the finding that there was bleach 0:23:31.160 --> 0:23:34.119 not blood in there. But of course that whole theory 0:23:34.359 --> 0:23:38.040