Post by SoulTrainOz on Jun 13, 2006 20:40:48 GMT -5
Death row inmate Kevin Cooper will likely be unaffected by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling Monday that gives wider latitude to condemned prisoners who wish to challenge the methods most states use to carry out executions. Cooper, who is on death row for the 1983 hatchet murders of four people in Chino Hills, still has no execution date set while he waits for a federal appeals court to weigh the validity of his conviction.
Meanwhile, all executions have already been on hold in California since February pending the appeals of another death row inmate who claimed the state's lethal injection procedures amount to cruel and unusual punishment.
A federal judge has scheduled hearings in the case of Michael Morales, and no executions are likely to take place in the state until his case is first resolved.
Cooper has been convicted of the murders of Douglas and Peggy Ryen, their 10-year-old daughter, Jessica, and 11-year-old houseguest Christopher Hughes. All 4 were attacked in the middle of the night as they slept in the Ryen family home.
The slayings occurred several days after Cooper escaped from the nearby California Institution for Men state prison.
Cooper was almost executed 2 years ago, but a federal appeals court spared him in the final hours and ordered hearings on his claims that police framed him for the killings. His appeals continue.
A federal judge in San Diego upheld his conviction in April 2005, and his attorneys appealed that ruling to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Attorneys for both sides have submitted hundreds of pages of briefings to a 3-judge panel of the appeals court and are now waiting for the court's response.
The court could do anything from immediately halting Cooper's efforts to ordering a whole new round of evidentiary hearings.
(source: The Daily Bulletin)
Meanwhile, all executions have already been on hold in California since February pending the appeals of another death row inmate who claimed the state's lethal injection procedures amount to cruel and unusual punishment.
A federal judge has scheduled hearings in the case of Michael Morales, and no executions are likely to take place in the state until his case is first resolved.
Cooper has been convicted of the murders of Douglas and Peggy Ryen, their 10-year-old daughter, Jessica, and 11-year-old houseguest Christopher Hughes. All 4 were attacked in the middle of the night as they slept in the Ryen family home.
The slayings occurred several days after Cooper escaped from the nearby California Institution for Men state prison.
Cooper was almost executed 2 years ago, but a federal appeals court spared him in the final hours and ordered hearings on his claims that police framed him for the killings. His appeals continue.
A federal judge in San Diego upheld his conviction in April 2005, and his attorneys appealed that ruling to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Attorneys for both sides have submitted hundreds of pages of briefings to a 3-judge panel of the appeals court and are now waiting for the court's response.
The court could do anything from immediately halting Cooper's efforts to ordering a whole new round of evidentiary hearings.
(source: The Daily Bulletin)