California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order Friday calling for new DNA testing in the case of Kevin Cooper, a death row inmate whose conviction could be a key debate point in the 2020 presidential election.
Newsom’s actions come in response to a clemency application from Cooper, whose defense says the long-requested tests could prove his innocence in the 1983 killing of four people in Chino Hills, California.
For years, Cooper’s defense team has raised credible evidence that sheriff’s deputies framed him for the crime. New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, who has reported extensively on Cooper’s case, has also concluded that that is the most likely explanation. He praised Newsom’s announcement as an “excellent” development.
This development may prove to be a big problem for 2020 candidate Sen.
Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), who’s faced sharp criticism for refusing to allow advanced DNA testing of the evidence in Cooper’s case during her tenure as the state’s attorney general ― something she later told the Times she now feels “awful” about.