June 2009
There is more evidence now that my constitutional rights are being violated by the state than there was in 2004 when I received the stay of execution.
Whereas at that time there was only a single Brady Violation, now in 2009 there are numerous Brady Violations. So why am I damn near just as close to being tortured and murdered by this state as I was then?
Politics.
This very real fact must be acknowledged. In 2004 when I received that stay of execution the democrats were in control of the en banc panel which granted me that stay. They were also in the majority in the 9th circuit court of appeals.
Here in 2009, it’s the republicans who are the majority in the 9th circuit court of appeals, and they were in control of who decides who gets an en banc panel and who doesn’t. They wouldn’t allow for me to get one this time around. This is when one looks at the number of dissenters in my case, there are ten democrats and only one republican.
That’s the difference.
Yet we are told that the law is the law. It’s not a republican law or a democratic law, it’s the law.
A constitutional violation is against the law, but that’s only if you’re not a poor person. Especially a poor Black Man convicted of killing White people. Then the constitution doesn’t apply, the law doesn’t apply.
That’s the difference.
In Struggle From
Death Row at San Quentin
Kevin Cooper