Kevin Cooper (inmate) - DNA Testing

DNA Testing

In 2001, Cooper became the first death row inmate in California to successfully request post-conviction DNA testing of evidence. The results of those DNA tests failed to exonerate him of the 1983 murders and indicated that hairs found on three of the victims were likely their own.

The tests suggested that there is "strong evidence" that it was Kevin Cooper's DNA that was extracted from the following items of evidence:

• A bloodstain found inside the Ryens' home.
• The saliva on a hand rolled cigarette butt found inside the Ryen station wagon
• The saliva on a manufactured cigarette butt found inside the Ryen station wagon
• A bloodstain located on a tee shirt that was found beside a road some distance from the Ryen home. There is strong evidence that one of the victims, Doug Ryen, was the donor of another bloodstain found on the same tee shirt. Cooper is also consistent with being the donor of two additional blood smears and a possible donor of blood spatter on the same tee shirt. The testing of the bloodstain on the hatchet, which was one of the murder weapons, revealed that the victims Jessica Ryen, Doug Ryen, and Chris Hughes were all possible contributors to this sample. Those three victims can account for all the results detected in that mixture. Peggy Ryen and Josh Ryen cannot be excluded as possible minor contributors to this mixture as well.

Cooper was scheduled to be executed on February 10, 2004, but his execution was postponed only hours before it was to take place to allow for further DNA testing. The postponement followed a campaign by various groups in the Bay Area and around the country, such as the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, the ACLU, Death Penalty Focus, and The Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal.