February 10 2004, San Quentin State Prison, California As protesters march on San Quentin the execution of Kevin Cooper is halted In a dramatic change of events on Feb. 9, less than four hours before his scheduled execution, Kevin Cooper was granted a stay from death by lethal injection. The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals earlier in the day had ruled nine to two to send the case back to a federal judge in San Diego because a significant amount of information had surfaced indicating that San Bernardino police had planted and tampered with evidence in order to get a conviction of Cooper in the 1983 deaths of four people. Prior to the ruling, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, a Democrat, began an appeal process to petition the Supreme Court to overrule the stay. The San Francisco office of the ANSWER Coalition immediately activated its phone fax and email network, flooding the Attorney General's office to demand he not appeal the lower court's decision. Despite the stay, opponents of the death penalty continued their mobilizing efforts to march on San Quentin, where Kevin Cooper was in a deathwatch cell 12 feet from the execution chamber. It had become clear when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger denied Cooper even the customary clemency hearing that the state of California was hell bent on following through with the execution, despite the growing evidence of Cooper's innocence. In recent weeks the Cooper case has galvanized progressive forces around the state and has also become a focus of national attention as sentiment against the death penalty gains momentum. Demonstrations have taken place all over California, including protests at Schwarzenegger's mansion in Los Angeles. Full-page ads by the Committee to Stop the Execution of Kevin Cooper appeared in the New York Times and several California newspapers. Actors and well-known progressive figures--including Denzel Washington, Mike Farrell, Danny Glover, Anjelica Houston, Angela Davis, Noam Chomsky and many others--have lent their names to stop the execution. Legislators from all over Europe spoke out against the execution, including the mayor of Schwarzen egger's hometown in Austria. As media trucks lined up in front of the west gate to San Quentin, hundreds of pro testers started to march the one and a half miles from the Larkspur Ferry to the main gate near the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, which crosses San Francisco Bay. The loud and militant demonstration for ced the California Highway Patrol to stop traffic in the westbound lane of the bridge. The march had large contingents from the Campaign to End the Death Penalty and the ANSWER Coalition. When the protesters got close to the gate of San Quentin, they were met by another 100 cheering anti-death penalty protesters who had just heard that the U.S. Supreme Court had refused to intervene to block the stay of execution. Speaker after speaker reiterated that this was a victory for the people. The fact that Kevin Cooper was still alive signals that people see the death penalty as not just a flawed system from a technical point of view but one that is a racist instrument of repression against the poor. Several former death-row prisoners spoke, including Shujaa Graham and Juan Roberto Melen dez, a Puerto Rican who had been on death row for 17 years and was the 99th person to be exonerated. Melendez said, "The judicial system makes so many mistakes that an innocent man can easily get killed." Jesse Jackson, who had met with Cooper several times in the previous week, told the crowd, "This is part of a struggle across the nation to remove a system that is flawed." Gloria La Riva, speaking for the ANSWER Coalition, drew thunderous applause when she said, "It's George Bush who should be sitting on death row for his war crimes in Iraq, Palestine and Afghan istan and for killing over 150 prisoners while the governor of Texas." Although buoyed by the victory, acti vists left San Quentin knowing that Kevin Cooper's reprieve, which gives him at least 40 days before the state can issue another death warrant, is a period in which the struggle must not just continue to exist but must grow. --Bill Hackwell February 10, 2004 Abolish the Racist Death Penalty! BULLETIN February 10, 2004 - Filed at 12:06 a.m. ET Court Upholds Stay of Calif. Execution By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- The Supreme Court late Monday let stand an appeals court's stay for a man who hacked four people to death in 1983, denying California's request to let the execution proceed as planned. The demand by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that evidence in the case get a fresh look after 18 years of appeals came just hours before Kevin Cooper was to be executed by lethal injection. The Supreme Court later denied a request by the state of California to reverse the appeals court decision.   Feb. 9, 2004 -- URGENT -- Please post & distribute FLOOD THE ATTORNEY GENERALS OFFICE, DEMAND NO APPEAL TO STAY OF EXECUTION The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has issued a stay of execution today for Kevin Cooper just a few hours before he was to be executed in San Quentin. This stay represents a temporary victory to people who are oppose to the racist death penalty and to all of those who are demanding a new trial for Kevin Cooper based on the mountain of evidence indicating his innocence. The execution order is good for 24 hours starting 12:01 tonight Feb. 10. The stay can be over ruled by the courts at any moment during this time period so we must keep up the pressure by coming out to San Quentin tonight. The state's Attorney General office is weighing its option to appeal the 9th Circuit Court's stay by petitioning the Supreme Court. We need to flood Bill Lockyer Attorney General's office with phone calls, fax, email right now. Send an email message, write a note and fax, and call state Attorney General Bill Lockyer's office and tell him: "I am calling to demand that the Attorney General does not appeal the stay of execution for Kevin Cooper to the Supreme Court. The Kevin Cooper case represents all of the flaws of the death penalty and should not take place." CALL 1-916-324-5437 FAX 916-445-6749 E MAIL bill.lockyer@doj.ca.gov We know that it is not the courts who will gain the freedom of Kevin Cooper and the over 600 others on death row in California but the rising tide against the racist death penalty. For more information on this development, call International ANSWER at 415-821-6545. For carpools to tonight's march, call and reserve a spot by 4:30pm. Carpools leave at 5:30pm from the ANSWER office 2489 Mission St., Sn Francisco