the night of the crimes, a woman named diana roper had seen her boyfriend, man named lee furrow drive up to their house in the wee hours of the morning. lee furrow comes rushing into the house wearing coveralls splattered with what looks to be spots of blood. he changes clothes and turns around and leaves. there were other people in the house, and someone looked out the window and saw a white station wagon, matching the ryens parked in the driveway with other individuals in that car. diana roper called the sheriff s department and she gave them the coveralls. the bloody coveralls that they recovered were booked into evidence. when diana roper later learned that a hatchet was used in the murders, she again called police and said that lee
furrow s hatchet was missing from his tool belt. it would make sense that somebody like lee furrow would have killed the ryens. he was a convicted murderer. he had strangled to death a young woman and thrown her body into a canal. but san bernardino police waited 11 months before questioning lee furrow. and when they did, they never asked him about his missing ax. they also seemed to accept furrow s word that he didn t own any overalls. tom parker thinks he knows why. the coveralls in fact had been destroyed. a deputy had taken them and thrown them in a dumpster behind the sheriff s department to get rid of them because it was unfounded that they had been connected to the case. of course there had never been any blood testing or whatever to come to that conclusion. hile now raised this destruction of evidence with judge huff. in a criminal prosecution, the prosecution is required to turn over to the defense any
evidence that might be considered exonerating. it s a rule. if the prosecution doesn t do it, then they have committed what is called a brady violation, and the trial must be reversed, and a new trial given. the tennis shoe situation, the blue shirt and bloody coveralls were all brady violations. and we put on evidence as to all of those. judge huff rejected it. kevin cooper was running out of time. so his defense team reached out to a new potential advocate. san francisco chronicle columnist debra saunders. as a supporter of the death penalty, i wouldn t want to see an innocent man executed, would i? so if there s a hint that somebody might not be guilty, i want to know about it. i want to write about it. my editorial board at the san francisco chronicle wrote an
her boyfriend, man named lee furrow drive up to their house in the wee hours of the morning. lee furrow comes rushing into the house wearing coveralls splattered with what looks to be spots of blood. he changes clothes and turns around and leaves. there were other people in the house, and someone looked out the window and saw a white station wagon, matching the ryens parked in the driveway with other individuals in that car. diana roper called the sheriff s department and she gave them the coveralls. the bloody coveralls that they recovered were booked into evidence. when diana roper later learned that a hatchet was used in the murders, she again called police and said that lee furrow s hatchet was missing from his tool belt. it would make sense that somebody like lee furrow would have killed the ryens. he was a convicted murderer. he had strangled to death a young woman and thrown her body
it, then they have committed what is called a brady violation, and the trial must be reversed, and a new trial given. the tennis shoe situation, the bloody coveralls were all brady violation. and we put on evidence as to all of those. judge huff rejected it. kevin cooper was running out of time. so his defense team reached out to a new potential advocate. san francisco chronicle columnist debra saunders. as a supporter of the death penalty, i wouldn t want to see an innocent man executed, would i? so if there s a hint that somebody might not be guilty, i want to write about it. my editorial board at the san francisco chronicle wrote an editorial saying, gee, maybe kevin cooper is an innocent man. the defense attorneys laid out this case about how this innocent man had been unjustly convicted. coopers defense said for