Kim Kardashian West turning attention toward death row inmate
After winning the release of Alice Marie Johnson from President Trump, a new case in California has the reality show star focusing on preventing an execution
Months after she successfully convinced President Trump to grant clemency to Alice Marie Johnson, Kim Kardashian West is now asking California Gov. Jerry Brown to revisit the case of an inmate she believes was wrongly convicted of murder.
Kardashian West linked to a New York Times opinion piece detailing the case of Kevin Cooper, a Black man who some believe was framed, and tweeted to Brown to “please add Kevin Cooper to your legacy of smart, fair and thoughtful criminal justice reforms.”
Cooper is sitting on death row at San Quentin prison. Former attorney general and now Brown has refused to allow DNA testing that could help exonerate Cooper, the Times piece reads.
“Imagine being framed for a horrific crime: the fatal stabbing of a married couple and two children,” the piece opens. “You then spend 35 years in prison awaiting execution for that quadruple murder. Imagine that you’re a black man and that the trial was tainted by the ugliest racism.”
Now, the white man who also was convicted in the murders is stepping forward to say that he, too, wants advanced DNA testing of evidence from the crime scene.
The white convict, like Cooper, also says he had nothing to do with the murder and he wants to clear his name, according to the Times piece.
Among the details cited in the piece: A towel used by the killer or killers has never been tested, a T-shirt used by one of the killers has never been tested to determine who wore it, hairs found in the victims’ hands are not from a Black person.
Brown has told the Times, “I’ll act on it,” but also complained that the news organization’s reporting has left out “a number of elements.” A new governor will be elected next month. Brown will leave office in January.
Doug and Peggy Ryen, their daughter, Jessica, 10, and neighbor, Chris Hughes, 11, died in the 1983 killings.
Brown has not responded to Kardashian West’s tweet.
Johnson, freed in June after the White House intervention by Kardashian West, was serving life in an Alabama federal prison for a nonviolent drug offense. She’s served 22 years.
