A panel from the 9th Circuit Court in California has stayed
the execution of Kevin Cooper, convicted of hacking to death 4
people in 1985. In what can only be described as an "evidentiary fishing
expedition” one of the judges on the panel suggested that we should be in
"no hurry” to execute Cooper. Cooper has been on death row for 19 years. It
would seem being "in a hurry” would be an exaggeration.
Cooper was convicted in 1985 and sentenced to death for the murders of
Douglas and Peggy Ryen, their 10-year-old daughter,
Jessica, and Christopher Hughes, her 11-year-old
friend. The victims were stabbed and hacked to death repeatedly with a
hatchet and buck knife. The Ryens' 8-year old son, Joshua, had his throat
slit, but survived. He was awakened that murderous night by screaming and
was left unconscious with a slashed throat, two hatchet wounds and two stab
wounds. "He put all four fingers in his neck to stop his bleeding while he
was staring closely at his mother -- dead, and covered in blood. Josh laid
there 11 hours," his lawyer Milt Silverman recounts.
Cooper was at the time an escaped convict. He had escaped from prison where
he was serving a four-year sentence for burglary when the murders were
committed. Authorities suspect his motive was to steal the family's car.
Cooper and his attorneys maintain that DNA evidence found at the scene,
which matched Cooper’s, was planted by authorities. He has repeatedly asked
for tests to re-verify the DNA as his but the courts have rejected his
requests saying there is no evidence of tampering and there is overwhelming
evidence of Cooper's guilt.
Regardless of the overwhelming amount of evidence and 19 years with which to
prove his innocence the 9th Circuit Court has opted to waste some more of
the taxpayer’s money re-proving that this monster hacked and slashed the
life out of four people all those years ago. This stands as another piece of
evidence that liberally motivated judicial activism is embedded like a
cancer within the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
To
add insult to injury, the family of the victims has to live with the idiocy
of activists like Jeanine Garofalo, Sean Penn,
Mike Farrell, Ruben "Hurricane” Carter,
Jesse Jackson and a myriad of other liberally and ideologically
motivated notables who are abusing their celebrity to use Cooper as a tool
while speaking out against the death penalty. This comes in the face of the
abduction and murder of Carlie Brucia by Joseph Smith,
a man that was allowed to remain free by a liberal Florida judge practicing
liberal judicial activism.
Time after time we hear about our youth being slaughtered by repeat
offenders that have been shown the compassion of a liberal judicial system.
These ideological decisions, mistakes by the benchmark of common sense, are
costing innocent lives because the liberally hair-brained believe that one
can negotiate with evil. It is not the case. Instead of holding these
murderous thugs responsible for their actions these self-appointed
consciences of society lash out at those charged with dealing with the
elements of evil in our society. These members of the celebrity
super-culture defend those with blood dripping from their hands while
claiming that those in law enforcement are the ones committing crimes by
planting evidence and lying under oath. These ideologues claim that the
death penalty is cruel and unusual and that it inflicts undo pain. They are
right. It inflicts undo pain on the families of the victims and allows those
who would otherwise kill someone to steal their car or for their own morbid
sexual gratification the ability to sit hand in hand with actors,
millionaires who haven’t the slightest idea what terror really means. All
the while being abetted in their nauseating malevolence by activist judges
who are not worthy to wear the robes of those who seriously dispense justice
to those who cross the law.
Cooper and his attorneys have had close to 20 years to refute the verdict
served to him by a jury of his peers. If the defense had any credible claims
to Cooper’s innocence they would have been addressed long ago. The claim
that the authorities planted DNA evidence has become a stock contention ever
since OJ Simpson bought his acquittal. It is a contention used
by every guilty person to grasp at the very same straws of life that they
denied their innocent victims. I find them to be terribly lucky that during
their time spent manipulating the system they aren’t all haunted beyond
sanity by the begging they heard as they massacred, murdered and eliminated
their victims from the face of the planet.
We in the United States have to make it easier to remove those from the
bench who practice such blatant judicial activism. This epidemic of
stupidity has gone on long enough. It is time for those who embrace common
sense to take back our courts. We must remember that the judicial system is
a branch of our government, a government of the people, by the people and
for the people. We need to make our voices, the voices of common sense,
heard before it is too late, before another family is hacked to death by
another convicted felon, before another 11-year old girl is taken from our
streets and murdered by someone who should have been incarcerated and before
the liberal activists and their crony judges set every violent criminal
free.
Frank Salvato is a
political media consultant and the managing editor for The New Media Journal.us. He is a
contributing writer for The Washington Dispatch, GOPUSA, OpinionEditorials,
Men’s News Daily, Canada Free Press & AmericanDaily. His pieces are
regularly featured in Townhall.com. He has appeared as a guest on The
O’Reilly Factor, The Kevin Matthews Radio Show (Chicago) and The Brad Messer
Radio Show (San Antonio). His pieces have been recognized by the Japan
Center for Conflict Prevention and are occasionally featured in The
Washington Times and The London Morning Paper as well as other national and
international publications.
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