Trillions for Human Needs, Not War
To friends and supporters of Kevin Cooper:
Kevin Cooper was invited to make a presentation at a November 15, 2025, conference that advocated for “Free Palestine, Hands Off Venezuela, and No to ICE Raids!” He delivered the following message over a phone call from prison. It was very well received by the audience of antiwar, and prisoner solidarity activists.
“Good afternoon, I am Kevin Cooper and I am calling from the California Health Care Facility at Stockton—another name for a modern-day plantation. I am an Innocent Man On Death Row In This State’s Injustice System. I am an oppressed man, and, as such I am in support of, and in complete solidarity with all oppressed people in this country and throughout the world. Especially our innocent Palestinian sisters and brothers who are having genocide done to them by the Israeli government with the support and bombs of our government.
“The late Paul Robeson stated that the way to end injustice is not to silence the critic, but to end the injustice. We will not be silent or silenced because we know that silence is betrayal, and we will not betray ourselves, our ancestors, or our children.
“To close, I would like to quote one of our greatest fighters today and warrior queens—a friend who I never met in person, but I hope to one day, Ms. Pam Africa. While I cannot say it exactly like she did when I first heard her on KPFA radio when I was at San Quentin prison, she said: ‘Down With This Rotten Ass System!’ To that I wholeheartedly agree.
“In Struggle and Solidarity, I’m Kevin Cooper”
Introduction by Carole Seligman
I was honored to introduce Kevin as follows:
I am a friend and supporter of Kevin Cooper for the last 20 years, so am honored to introduce him to you today. An integral part of the Human Needs we must consider at this conference is the struggle for Justice!
The case of Kevin Cooper lacks any semblance of justice because Kevin is an undeniably innocent man who has spent over 41 years on death row at San Quentin state prison and now at the California Health Care Facility prison in Stockton.
The good news I have to report today is that Kevin has a new ability to appeal his 1985 conviction for the brutal murder of the Ryan family and their child guest Christopher Hughes because the state of California has been caught out upholding long prison sentences of mostly Black and Brown people whose convictions were based on out-and-out racist acts by cops, courts, and prosecutors. Kevin Cooper is one of many prison inmates whose conviction was rife with racism on every level.
Due to the passage of, and amendments to, the California Racial Justice Act, lawyers for Kevin Cooper can now appeal his conviction proving that it was tainted with racism from the very beginning. Here are some examples:
- The surviving child victim of the murder of his family told police that the culprits were three white or Mexican men. Even when he saw Kevin’s picture on TV he said, “that’s not the man who did it.”
- More than one witness near the home of the victims reported seeing three white men in a station wagon matching the description of the Ryan’s car.
- Three white men, one wearing bloody coveralls, were seen in a bar near the crime scene.
- Demonstrations outside the court carried a monkey and used racial epithets calling for Kevin’s conviction.
- Evidence in the case—crucially important evidence—including bloody coveralls worn by one of the likely killers was turned in, but discarded by the cops, blood evidence was mishandled, mixing Kevin’s blood with someone else’s, blood was removed from the lab out of the chain of command.
These are just a few of the egregious examples of the out-and-out mishandling of this case. And Kevin came within less than four hours of being executed by the state, when he won a last-minute reprieve while he was in the execution chamber, with the big clock ticking and volunteer executioners glaring at him and cracking jokes.
The murderous regime running the U.S.—a regime that enables, funds, and supplies a genocide in Gaza, carries out a military assault on Venezuela, and attacks the immigrants who people the U.S. with raids, and violent physical assaults—cannot be expected to act with justice with due process while they continue to uphold the death penalty. We must fight to end it, to free Kevin Cooper, Mumia Abu-Jamal, and thousands of other prisoners.
I’m honored to introduce Kevin Cooper.
In Solidarity,
Carole Seligman
Kevin Cooper is an innocent man on death row. He continues to struggle for exoneration and to abolish the death penalty in the whole U.S. Learn more about his case at: www.kevincooper.org
Write to Kevin Cooper at:
Kevin Cooper C65304
CHCF Unit E1C 101
P.O. Box 213040
Stockton, CA 95213-9040