he went into hiding when he became the most wanted man in california. norm hile hired former fbi agent tom parker to look into cooper s case. when you re conducting an investigation, especially one as complex as this one, you essentially collect the evidence and let the evidence lead you to a suspect. what they did in this case was exactly the opposite. as word of the murders got out, the sheriff s department learned that kevin cooper had escaped, and that started what we refer to in law enforcement as tunnel vision. sheriff tidwell held a big press conference. they started with a suspect. and they didn t start collecting evidence to prove their theory. but if kevin cooper wasn t the killer, why did the hatchet
by 2003, kevin cooper had lost all of his appeals for the 1983 murders of the ryen family and chris hughes. with his time running out and cooper still professing his innocence, the case came to the attention of the high-powered law firm, orrick, herrington & sutcliffe. norm hile was part of a team that fought death penalty cases on a pro bono basis. one thing i ve learned in 25 years of representing people on death row, you re going to be fighting an uphill battle, and to have a client whose life is in the balance is a very heavy burden. what hile could not dispute was cooper s criminal history, his escape from prison and his proximity to the murders. i lived on the mean streets of pittsburgh when i was growing
on the ryens bed sheet, supposedly from a prison-issued sneaker. kottmeier claimed these were only manufactured and sold to prisons. in fact, it was a style of shoe that was readily available, very common tennis shoes with a very common shoe print. the question now was whether these were innocent mistakes by investigators or something more. norm hile was about to learn that before they turned their attention to cooper, police had been given other solid leads, including from the sole survivor. 8-year-old josh ryen was able to communicate to staff at the hospital that the people who had attacked him and his family were three white men. in fact, a picture of kevin cooper was on television. and he looked up, and he said that s not the one who did it.
by 2003, kevin cooper had lost all of his appeals for the 1983 murders of the ryen family and chris hughes. with his time running out and cooper still professing his innocence, the case came to the attention of the high-powered law firm, orrick, herrington & sutcliffe. norm hile was part of a team that fought death penalty cases on a pro bono basis. one thing i ve learned in 25 years of representing people on death row, you re going to be fighting an uphill battle, and to have a client whose life is in the balance is a very heavy burden. what hile could not dispute was cooper s criminal history, his escape from prison and his proximity to the murders. i lived on the mean streets of pittsburgh when i was growing up. i became a car thief.
kottmeier claimed these were only manufactured and sold to prisons. in fact, it was a style of shoe that was readily available, very common tennis shoes with a very common shoe print. the question now was whether these were innocent mistakes by investigators or something more. norm hile was about to learn that before they turned their attention to cooper, police had been given other solid leads, including from the sole survivor. 8-year-old josh ryen was able to communicate to staff at the hospital that the people who had attacked him and his family were three white men. in fact, a picture of kevin cooper was on television. and he looked up, and he said that s not the one who did it.