Gov. Jerry Brown’s final Christmas clemency actions include an order for special DNA testing for Kevin Cooper, Death Row inmate convicted of killing a San Bernardino County couple and two of their children.
In one of his last acts as California governor, Jerry Brown on Monday ordered new testing of physical evidence in an infamous 1983 murder case.
Kevin Cooper, the defendant in the case, is on death row, but argues DNA testing will show he was framed.
Brown announced the order as part of his Christmas Eve clemency actions, which include 143 pardons and 131 commutations. They include pardons for several people who entered the country legally but now face deportation, as well as for two people affected by the Camp Fire in Paradise.
The actions cap Brown’s second eight-year stint as governor during he sought to reduce prison populations. With 283 commutations and 1,332 pardons, he’s granted more clemency requests in his last eight years in office than any of his last eight predecessors.
He has described criminal justice work in recent years as his attempt to undo damage done by harsh sentencing laws he signed during his first term as governor in the 1970s.
Brown worked in his second stint as governor to return to a sentencing system that allows more opportunities for parole, saying he could “clean up” a problem he created when he signed a determinate sentencing law in 1976.
