Legal News

Kevin Cooper's Supreme Court bid not looking good, law professors say

By Richard Binder

Kevin Cooper was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in 1985 for the brutal killings in Chino Hills of Douglas and Peggy Ryen, their daughter Jessica, and houseguest Christopher Hughes. The Supreme Court will decide this Tuesday whether or not to hear his case.

Cooper has long maintained his innocence, and his attorneys argue that the reviews in lower courts have been unfair because they required too high a standard when considering his innocence claims. Cooper is urging the Supreme Court to hear his case to provide guidance to lower courts about what standard of review applies when considering an inmate's innocence.

But legal experts say Cooper's odds for success may be worse than the average petitioner. Not only will the brutal facts of the murder harm his case, they suggest, but the Supreme Court often brings cases that will allow it to clarify unsettled areas of the law that lower courts failed to interpret consistently instead of reviewing evidence to make a ruling partly based on its views of the petitioner's guilt or innocence.

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Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on November 23, 2009 (boomark / email).