by TChris

Four jurors who voted to convict Kevin Cooper are joining Denzel Washington and other actors in asking Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to postpone Cooper's February 10 execution in order to hold a clemency hearing. Cooper was sentenced to death in 1985 after being convicted of murdering four people, including two children, in Chino Hills.

In its plea to the governor, Cooper's newly assembled defense team said there was evidence that could exonerate Cooper, including an alleged confession by a mental health patient and possible DNA evidence from hairs found in the hand of one of the victims.

Prosecutors dismiss the evidence as old news, but the question is whether Schwarzenegger will think it casts enough doubt on Cooper's guilt to warrant greater scrutiny of facts that the jury never considered. He may be influenced by the unusual effort jurors have made to communicate their concerns about unanswered questions in the case and the conduct of police detectives.

Cooper's defense team includes Lanny Davis, "the Washington, D.C., attorney who helped the Clinton White House with damage control during the Monica Lewinsky scandal," and "ex-boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, who spent nearly 20 years in a New Jersey prison before his conviction for three murders was overturned." Interestingly, Cooper's request for a clemency hearing is supported by Denzel Washington, who portrayed Carter in the movie "The Hurricane," and by actors Sean Penn and Richard Dreyfuss. Will the pleas of his fellow actors capture the Governor's attention? If so, enlisting their support was a smart move.