Letter: Regarding Kamala Harris
By Kevin Cooper
In a country where the criminal justice system for the most part is anything but just, I speak to you from experience of 40-plus years of being denied constitutional rights that I, as an American citizen, am told on paper I am entitled to receive but was denied. This includes being denied DNA testing from former California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris, to being the victim of a sham “innocence investigation” ordered by current California Gov. Gavin Newsom and many of his associates.
At this point in time, my legal team and I are more concerned with what Newsom is doing to me than what Harris once didn’t do for me.
I find myself having to make a statement against what certain Republicans are trying to do. They are trying to hurt Vice President Kamala Harris’s chances to become the first woman – woman of color – president of the Divided States of America.
I cannot allow the Republicans to misuse my case against her. So therefore, I Kevin Cooper am forgiving Kamala Harris for once denying me DNA testing. If I can find it within my heart to forgive her, as I am still sentenced to death for murders that I did not commit, then how can the Republicans, who do not care about me, hold or use what she didn’t do as attorney general against her now?
In all honesty, I did not come to this conclusion easily. I came to it after listening to and believing what a few very important Californians in my life had to say on this subject. These Californians, by the way, happen to be a diverse group of women.
My spiritual friend Zanetta, who is proudly Christian, explained to me about the power of real forgiveness and how itis a constructive thing, while hatred and dwelling on negative things in the past can lead to destructive things.
My kindred spirit Zoe, who is raising her daughter to think and believe that she can be anything in this world that she wants to be, even president of the United States, helped to make me see the historical reality of this country having for the very first time, a woman as president and the powerful impact it will have on future generations of girls like her daughter.
Then there’s my conscience, Gavrilah, who expressed her fears of what we ALL have to lose if Trump becomes president again. His ongoing commitment to the racist and classist death penalty, the criminalization of poor people, specifically people of color, and filling up the courts with conservative judges are just a few of her very real fears.
The earth will be in even more danger than it already is, because it appears that many Republicans are more concerned with making money from the earth than saving the earth from human greed and destruction.
I was the one wronged by then Atty. Gen Kamala Harris, yet I am forgiving her. If I can do so, how dare a political party who doesn’t give a damn about poor people, especially Black and brown people, try to help themselves by using me to hurt her. If a Republican had been the attorney general at the time I requested DNA testing, they would have done the same thing to me – or worse. In fact, they already did, and that is why I am in the current position I am in.
In Solidarity and struggle while still sentenced to death,
Kevin Cooper
Kudos to Mr. Cooper for realizing that Republicans are trying to use him as a political pawn. It sounds like he had a lot of soul searching to do before arriving at the proper conclusion. If Harris had been Attorney General in another state Republicans wouldn’t have cared a damn about his plight.
Probably because she wouldn’t be there to deny the DNA testing. However, let’s not be mistaken—Republicans still don’t genuinely care about his situation; their focus is on the character of a presidential candidate. When someone leverages their background as Attorney General to bolster their image, a case like this becomes relevant and should be scrutinized.