(This testimony was read at the public hearing on lethal injection in Sacramento, June 30, 2025)
In 1864, Abraham Lincoln declared, “If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.” Today, in 2009, I, Kevin Cooper, a descendent of the slaves President Lincoln emancipated, and a 21st century imprisoned slave here in the state of California declare, “If the death penalty is not wrong, nothing in this life can ever be wrong.”
We all know that these United States of America have a history of doing the wrong thing, though it seems to do so only to its poorest people. This modern-day version of the death penalty is just as connected to slavery now, as it was when slavery was also the law of the land. The death penalty has been allowed to survive based upon lies.
Lies such as: Every person on death row is guilty. Lies such as: It is a deterrent to crime. The politicians, and the people who use the death penalty to further their careers and their ideology, tell these lies and the mainstream news media broadcasts them into your home and minds.
Right now, I have a truth for you. “The State of California may be about to execute an innocent man” Don’t take my word for it, especially since I am that innocent man. You can believe the five Federal Circuit Court judges who signed on to the dissenting opinion that began with that very sentence. Or you can believe the six other Federal Circuit Court judges who said that “nothing in this case is right.”
How many more doubts must come to light to make this killing machine inoperable? How many more lies must be exposed before the people who enforce this system are no longer believed? How many more poor people must be killed by this historical crime against humanity before it, like slavery, is ended?
There is another lie about the death penalty, that lethal injection or any other method of killing people can be humane. The state of California has proposed changes to the ritual of death, but it is still torture. They built a new death chamber, and changed some words around, but the procedure remains the same. Even now they insist on using drugs that veterinarians have banned when it comes to ending the lives of animals. How many more people are going to be tortured and murdered before we end the death penalty?
The death penalty is wrong, and that’s just the way it is.
In Struggle From
Death Row at San Quentin
Kevin Cooper