California Gov. Gavin Newsom told the San Francisco Chronicle that he continues to believe that convicted killer Kevin Cooper is guilty of the 1983 murder of Doug and Peggy Ryen, their daugther Jessica, 10, and Christopher Hughes, 11, who was sleeping over with his friend Josh Ryen, then eight, who was left for dead. Newsom’s remarks followed yet another investigation into the case that confirmed Cooper’s conviction.
Cooper escaped from a nearby correctional facility where he was serving time for burglary under an alias, hid out in a house near the Ryens’ Chino Hills home, left his DNA in the Ryen home, then fled toward Mexico after the brutal slayings.
Death-penalty opponents prefer to ignore the copious evidence against Cooper as they prefer their belief that racist San Bernardino law enforcement officials framed Cooper because he was Black and an escaped convict.
So they have pushed for post-conviction testing which they argued would exculpate Cooper. Instead, of course, the tests put him at the scene of the gruesome crime.
In fact, Cooper was the logical suspect. Not only had he escaped from the nearby Chino Institution for Men, but he also left behind physical evidence tied him to a house near the Ryen home and the Ryens’ car, which he used to skip town.
For a time, the New York Times’ Nick Kristof peddled the Cooper-was-framed theory, as he argued that a convicted killer named Lee Furrow, was likely behind the gruesome slayings. Problem: Furrow had an alibi.
Most important: Cooper left behind DNA at the murder scene.
Kristof pushed for more scrutiny of the conviction. He got what he wanted. Newsom and his predecessor, Jerry Brown, ordered an innocence investigation, but it didn’t change anything. Because Cooper is guilty.
As San Bernardino District Attorney Jason Anderson wrote in 2021,
Cooper’s claims and defenses are not new or novel, and they have been repeatedly examined and tested for more than thirty-five years. The record in this case and subsequent examination establishes that Cooper is guilty of the murders of Douglas, Peggy and Jessica Ryen, and Christopher Hughes, particularly in light of the extraordinary due process he has received over and above virtually any other defendant convicted of murder. Please recall that Cooper has never been able to explain how his blood was found at the crime scene before anyone knew Cooper had escaped from prison, and how his blood and the blood of victim Douglas Ryen was found on the tan t-shirt that was never introduced by the prosecution at his trial. And please consider that Cooper perjured himself at trial and that the jury rejected his testimony as incredible. Cooper’s silence on these issues speaks volumes.
Debra J. Saunders is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute’s Chapman Center for Citizen Leadership.
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