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Demonstration against the execution of Kevin Cooper in February 2004
Photo: Marcio Jose Sanchez / AP
California's governor has ordered an independent investigation into the death row of a death-row African-American who has protested his innocence for decades.
Democratic governor Gavin Newsom said Friday that "questions have surfaced about the evidence" presented in the Kevin Cooper trial.
A law firm is said to be investigating the case with the California Release Committee.
Cooper had been sentenced to death for four murders.
His execution was suspended a few hours before the execution in 2004.
Previously, prominent death penalty opponents in the USA such as civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and the Council of Europe had unsuccessfully appealed to then Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to pardon Cooper.
Subsequent governors had new DNA tests done using more modern technology.
Governor Newsom has now ordered a "full" review of Cooper's trial and appeals process, old records and evidence, and recent DNA tests, in order to decide on the convict's pardon.
A hair at the crime scene
In 1985, a jury found Cooper guilty of killing a couple, their ten-year-old daughter, and their eleven-year-old boyfriend in June 1983.
The couple's younger son survived.
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Kevin Cooper when he was arrested in 1983
Photo: AP
Imprisoned for robbery at the time, Cooper had recently fled the prison in Chino Hills, east of Los Angeles.
According to the verdict, he wanted to use the family's car as a getaway vehicle.
Cooper had always protested his innocence.
He had to admit that the DNA of a hair at the scene was his, but said the police had placed the hair there to pin the murder on him.
Witnesses saw other men
At the time, several witnesses testified that they had seen three white men in blood-smeared clothing who had driven away from the family home in a stolen car on the night of the crime.
The surviving son had also described the perpetrators as white men.
Instead, the investigators arrested Cooper.
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Inmate Kevin Cooper
Photo: California Department Of Corrections and Rehabilitation / AP
The now 63-year-old Cooper and his defense attorneys accuse police of placing false evidence and destroying or altering references to other suspects.
When his execution was suspended in 2004, he was denied the right to appeal.
Thereupon five judges warned in a written contradiction that the state of California was on the verge of "executing an innocent man."
gro / afp