Court Opinion

ID: 9496746
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:34:27.168838+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:57:46.567871
License: Public Domain

SILVERMAN, Circuit Judge,
with whom RAWLINSON, Circuit Judge, joins, concurring in part and dissenting in part.
Cooper is either guilty as sin or he was framed by the police. There is no middle ground.
Cooper asserts a freestanding claim of actual innocence. In Herrera v. Collins, 506 U.S. 390, 393, 113 S.Ct. 853, 122 L.Ed.2d 203 (1993), the Supreme Court held that a freestanding claim of actual innocence based on newly discovered evidence was not a ground for habeas corpus relief. See also Turner v. Calderon, 281 F.3d 851, 872 (9th Cir.2002). However, the Supreme Court assumed, without deciding, that “in a capital case a truly persuasive demonstration of ‘actual innocence’ made after trial would render the execution of a defendant unconstitutional, and warrant federal habeas relief if there were no state avenue open to process such a claim.” Herrera, 506 U.S. at 417, 113 S.Ct. 853. The Court noted that “the threshold showing for such an assumed right would necessarily be extraordinarily high.” Id.; see also Schlup v. Delo, 513 U.S. 298, 315-16, 115 S.Ct. 851, 130 L.Ed.2d 808 (1995). We have held that “a habeas petitioner asserting a freestanding innocence claim must go beyond demonstrating doubt about his guilt, and must affirmatively prove that he is probably innocent.” Carriger v. Stewart, 132 F.3d 463, 476-77 (9th Cir.1997) (rejecting a Jackson v. Virginia modified sufficiency of the evidence test for such claims); see also Turner, 281 F.3d at 872; Jackson v. Calderon, 211 F.3d 1148, 1164 (9th Cir.2000), cert. denied, 531 U.S. 1072, 121 S.Ct. 764, 148 L.Ed.2d 665 (2001).
Everything comes down to the bloody t-shirt. At trial, the prosecution presented no evidence that the t-shirt contained Cooper’s blood; Cooper subsequently sought DNA testing to show that he did not com*1125mit the murders. DNA testing established that the shirt contained Cooper’s blood and the blood of one or more of the victims. This is very damning evidence, but Cooper contends that his blood was planted on the shirt by law enforcement officers. If the blood was planted, he says, it will reflect a high level of EDTA, a preservative agent contained in the vial in which the blood was stored. A high level of EDTA will show that the blood came from the vial rather than directly from him, proving that the police tampered with evidence in an effort to frame him. Conversely, if the blood is not contaminated by EDTA, the shirt conclusively proves his guilt. As Cooper himself puts it, “the question of Mr. Cooper’s innocence can be answered once and for all.” 1
Since Cooper’s guilt can be quickly and definitively determined by means of a simple test, there is no reason not to have it performed prior to his execution. I would hold in abeyance Cooper’s application to file a second or successive petition, and I would order the parties to promptly arrange for the testing of the shirt. I would stay his execution in the meantime. The public cannot afford a mistake. Neither can Cooper.

. Cooper represents to the court that his next-of-kin intends to obtain the t-shirt and test it for EDTA even if the execution goes forward.