Kevin Copper is one step closer to the reaper after the Supreme Court rejected his attempt to get another trial and win his freedom.
The death row inmate was convicted in 1983 of barbarically murdering Douglas and Peggy Ryen (both 41) Jessica Ryen (10), and her compatriot Cristopher Hughes, all of whom met their end via a buck knife or hatchet, leaving then 8-year-old Joshua Ryen as the sole survivor of the solitary survivor after making it through a slit throat.
Cooper, whom has long attested to his innocence in the murders while claiming that a three killers actually perpetrated the heinous crime, was due to be executed in 2004 but was saved by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which demanded that genetic testing be done on various pieces of evidence found at the crime scene in the effort to either prove of disprove him.
That same court later sided with findings rendered by a district judge, claiming that results of the genetic test did not conclusively prove Coopers innocence.
No official date has been set for his execution.
