http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me ... california


More Tests Ordered in Cooper Murder Case
By Lance Pugmire
Times Staff Writer

November 16, 2004

SAN DIEGO — A federal judge on Monday ordered another round of DNA
testing on a blood-smeared T-shirt at the center of the latest appeal
by death row inmate Kevin Cooper, who was convicted of killing four
people in Chino Hills in 1983.

Cooper's defense attorneys alleged that police may have planted
Cooper's blood on the tan-orange shirt, which was found near the home
where two adults and two children were found slaughtered with a hunting
knife and hatchet.

Cooper, who had escaped from Chino state prison and hid for two days
near the home where the killings occurred, was convicted of the murders
in 1985. He was hours from being executed in February when the U.S. 9th
Circuit Court of Appeals granted a stay.

The court agreed with Cooper's attorneys, who argued that lingering
questions about Cooper's guilt could be answered by conducting two
simple, inexpensive tests on the shirt and hairs found at the crime
scene.

Tests on the hairs determined that they most likely belonged to the
murder victims.

Two experts tested the T-shirt for a blood preservative known as EDTA,
used by law enforcement when storing blood samples. Cooper's attorneys
argued that the presence of EDTA would indicate that police planted the
evidence on the shirt.

An expert recommended by the defense found no suspicious levels of EDTA
on the shirt; a prosecution expert found elevated levels but has since
said his findings were flawed because of contamination.

U.S. District Judge Marilyn L. Huff on Monday ordered additional DNA
testing of the blood on the shirt. It will probably be completed next
month. .

"If Kevin Cooper's blood is on that area and there's no evidence of
tampering, then there's no support for your tampering theory," Huff
told Cooper defense attorney David Alexander.


Copyright 2004 Los Angeles Times