Mumia
Abu-Jamal's Radio Broadcasts
CA Killing:
The Case of Kevin Cooper
Long
version: mp3,
2.97 MBs, 3:35
[Col. Recorded
1/9/04]
A man named
Kevin Cooper has been given a date to die: On Feb. 10, 2004, the
State of California plans to kill him, by pumping him full of poison.
Cooper, convicted
back in 1984 of the slaying of 3 members of the Ryen clan, and a
visiting family friend, was also charged with stabbing an 8-year
old boy, but luckily the child survived.
Why lucky? Well,
apart from the obvious reason (his sheer survival), Joshua Ryen
saw who attacked him, and upon recovery told police that it was
3 white or Latino men who slew his family, his friend, and tried
to kill him.
When young Josh
saw TV news accounts of the attacks, he turned to a cop who was
present, and exclaimed, when the picture of Kevin Cooper flashed
across the screen, "That wasn't the guy who did it. It was
3 Mexicans."
... out of the
mouths of babes, eh?
But, San Bernardino
officials didn't care; what does it matter that the lone surviving
victim cleared their suspect? It meant nothing. They had their man
— and on the 10th of February, they wanna kill him.
Kevin Cooper,
now a man of 45 years, has spent the last 19 years of his life on
California's Death Row, for a series of brutal crimes — that
he did not commit.
Cooper turned
his cell into a school room; studying writing, politics and African-American
history. He has grown into a vibrant, talented and educated individual
— yet California still wants to extinguish his light.
It is important
to note that he is an African-American man. That wasn't lost during
his Dec. 1984 trial, around which time demonstrators, calling for
his death, hung a toy gorilla in effigy. Indeed, the media coverage
was so hyped, the demonstrations so hostile, that the trial was
moved to San Diego.
Not only was
the only living eyewitness ignored; but shortly after the murders,
a local woman came forward to tell police that she thought her boyfriend
was involved in the
grisly killings. Why? When he came home the night of the slayings,
she said, he was wearing a pair of overalls, drenched in blood.
The woman turned them over to the
cops. Before the day was over, the overalls were pitched into the
station's dumpster. Did it matter that the man was wearing a t-shirt
the color and brand of the t-shirt found in the scene — it
also, bloody? No. Did it matter that he owned a hatchet, like a
weapon used in the Ryen home, and it was conveniently missing from
the couple's home. No.
None of it mattered.
They wanted,
and focused on, Kevin Cooper; nothing else mattered.
Police and prosecutors
told jurors that a bloody shoe- print found at the scene conclusively
proved Cooper's guilt. Were the jurors told that Deputy William
Baird had a pair of prison shoes in his (crime) lab, which were
Cooper's size? What they also didn't know was that the Deputy, post-trial,
was fired for stealing five pounds of heroin from the evidence locker
— *five pounds* — both to use and to sell — to drug
dealers!
Kevin Cooper
is on Death Row, awaiting a date with death, based on 'investigators'
such as these!
Incredible!
Welcome to the
American Way of Death!
Help save—no;
help Free Kevin Cooper!
Copyright
2004 Mumia Abu-Jamal
Check out Mumia's
NEW book:
"Faith of Our Fathers: An Examination of the Spiritual Life
of African and African-American People" at www.africanworld.com
The Power of Truth
is Final — Free Mumia!
PLEASE CONTACT:
International Concerned Family & Friends of MAJ
P.O. Box 19709
Philadelphia, PA 19143
Phone - 215-476-8812/ Fax - 215-476-6180
E-mail - AND
OFFER YOUR SERVICES!
Send our brotha
some LOVE and LIGHT at:
Mumia Abu-Jamal
AM 8335
SCI-Greene
175 Progress Drive
Waynesburg, PA 15370
WE WHO BELIEVE
IN FREEDOM CAN *NOT* REST!!
Submitted by:
Sis. Marpessa
Text
© copyright 2004 by Mumia Abu-Jamal.
All rights reserved.
Reprinted by permission of the author.
|
