Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday, May 28, ordered an independent investigation into the high-profile case of Kevin Cooper, a death row inmate convicted in the 1983 slaying of three members of a Chino Hills family and one of their friends.

Cooper, who has maintained his innocence, has applied for clemency, and Newsom ordered the investigation to aid him in his decision, the governor’s office said Friday. The investigation, among other things, will look at recently completed DNA testing on what Cooper’s attorney’s say is new evidence.

San Bernardino County District Attorney Jason Anderson and Cooper’s lawyer Norman Hile strongly disagree on what the DNA findings reveal.

  • FILE - This undated file photo provided by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation shows inmate Kevin Cooper. California Gov. Jerry Brown ordered new DNA tests that a condemned inmate says could clear him in a 35-year-old quadruple murder case, which has drawn national attention. On Monday, Dec. 24, 2018, Brown ordered new testing on four pieces of evidence that Cooper and his attorneys say will show he was framed for the 1983 Chino Hills hatchet and knife killings of four people. (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation via AP, File)

  • Kevin Cooper listens during his preliminary hearing in Ontario in November 1983 for the murders in Chino Hills in June of 1983. (File photo by Walter Richard Weis / Staff Photographer)

  • Mug photo of Kevin Cooper who is convicted of murdering a Chino Hills family and neighbor with a hatchet in 1983. (File courtesy photo, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

  • Portrait of Christopher Hughes who was murdered along with the Ryen family in Chino Hills in 1983. The Ryen family son, Joshua, survived the attack. Kevin Cooper received the death penalty for the murders and is set to be executed Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2004. (File courtesy photo, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

  • Ten-year-old murder victim Jessica Ryen, seen here in a 1981 file photo, and her wounded 8-year-old brother, Joshua, seen here in a 1982 file photo, were victims of a 1983 stabbing attack in their Chino Hills, Calif., home. Prison escapee Kevin Cooper was convicted of capital murder in 1985 in the deaths of Jessica, her parents and an 11-year-old family friend. Cooper is scheduled to die by lethal injection at California’s San Quentin prison Tuesday, Feb. 10. (AP Photo/Files)

  • F. Douglas Ryen and his wife, Peggy Ann, seen here in 1983 file photos, were murdered in 1983 in their Chino Hills, Calif., home, along with their 10-year-old daughter Jessica, and an 11-year-old family friend. Prison escapee Kevin Cooper, who was convicted for the murders in 1985, is slated for execution Feb. 10, 2004. (AP Photo/File)

  • This photo shows a bloody shoe print found in a sheet in Doug and Peggy Ryen’s bedroom. Prosecutors say the print matches the size and type of shoes Kevin Cooper received at the California Institution for Men state prison before he escaped. (File courtesy photo, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

  • This photo shows the house in which Kevin Cooper hid out before the murders and the Ryen family home, where the 1983 Chino Hills murders took place. (File courtesy photo, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

  • This is the Ryen family house in Chino Hills. Kevin Cooper is accused of murdering Doug and Peggy Ryen, Jessica Ryen and Christopher Hughes inside with a hatchet in 1983. (File courtesy photo, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

  • The Rev. Jesse Jackson, middle, addresses protesters at the California State Penitentiary at San Quentin in San Quentin, Calif. on Monday, Feb. 9, 2003. A stay of execution was issued for death row inmate Kevin Cooper who was scheduled for execution at midnight on Feb 10. (Ross Cameron / Associated Press)

  • The hatchet investigators say Kevin Cooper used. Cooper was convicted in the killing of Chino Hills family Doug, Peggy and Jessica Ryen and neighbor sleeping over, Christopher Hughes. Eight-year-old Joshua Ryen survived the attack. (File courtesy photo, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

  • San Bernardino County Sheriff Floyd Tidwell holds press conference June 9, 2003 at the West End Substation to identify suspect in Chino Hills murders as Kevin Cooper. (Staff file photo by Walter Richard Weis, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

  • The Chino Hills family home where Doug, Peggy and Jessica Ryen were attacked and murdered in 1983. Eight-year-old Joshua Ryen survived the attack, but a neighbor sleeping over at the Ryen house, Christopher Hughes, was also killed. Kevin Cooper, an escapee from California Institute for Men at Chino, was convicted and received the death penalty for the murders. He is scheduled for execution Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2004. (Staff file photo, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

  • Prison escapee Kevin Cooper, center, escorted by law enforcement officers, is seen in this 1983 file photo shortly after his arrest in Santa Barbara, Calif. Cooper, who was convicted in 1985 for the murders of F. Douglas Ryen and his wife, Peggy Ann, along with their 10-year-old daughter, Jessica, and an 11-year-old family friend, is scheduled to die by lethal injection Tuesday, Feb. 10 at California’s San Quentin prison for the crimes. (AP/File)

Two years ago, against opposition from Anderson, Newsom ordered DNA testing on hairs collected from one of the victim’s hands at the crime scene, blood evidence, fingernail scrapings from the victims and a green button.

The year before, Newsom’s predecessor, Jerry Brown, ordered the testing of a tan T-shirt and orange towel found near the scene and a hatchet handle and sheath.

Cooper’s attorney at the time said he believed that testing would show that Cooper was framed.

Anderson in an interview late Friday said advanced testing by Bode Technology does not clear Cooper and does not show the presence of another party. In fact, the DNA evidence re-establishes that Cooper was at the murder scene, Anderson said. The submitted hairs turned out to be that of the victim and some animals, he said.

“It’s snake eyes for him and yet here we go down another road,” Anderson said.

He complained that Newsom’s move was unprecedented and takes the case outside the established judicial system into a private course.

“I’m not aware of any authority that allows for review outside the judicial branch — particularly on a case that’s been reviewed for 38 years,” he said. “There’s no evidence that any evidence was tampered with, the science continues to come back and excludes everybody else …Why is there a question in anybody’s mind?”

Hile disagreed with the prosecutor and said the new testing revealed the presence of another person at the crime scene. He added that Anderson’s summation of the test results was “just not true.”

“We are pleased the governor has ordered an innocence investigation for Kevin Cooper. Mr. Cooper we are certain will be vindicated and shown to be innocent by that investigation,” Hile said.

The disagreement about the DNA results is one of the reasons Newsom assigned the law firm Morrison & Foerster as special counsel to conduct an independent investigation.

Among its duties, the firm will review the trial and appellate records as well as the facts underlying the conviction, including facts and evidence that do not appear in the trial and appellate records. The firm’s review shall include an evaluation of all available evidence, including the recently conducted DNA tests, said the governor’s order.

See also: A special report on the Kevin Cooper case by the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin

DNA testing done in 2001 and 2002 did not exonerate Cooper.

In April 1983, Cooper was convicted of burglary in Los Angeles County and sent to the California Institution for Men in Chino. Less than two months later, he escaped from the prison and hid in a vacant Chino Hills’ rental house located 150 yards from the home of Doug and Peggy Ryen, according to prosecutors. He remained at the house until the evening of June 4, 1983.

The Ryens,  their 10-year-old daughter, Jessica, and 11-year-old neighbor Christopher Hughes were killed between June 4 and 5, 1983, prosecutors have said. The Ryens’ 8-year-old son, Joshua, had his throat slashed in the attack but survived.

Josh Ryen told police and hospital staff within hours of the murders that the killers were “three white men.” Mr. Cooper is African American, said the clemency application. Josh Ryen repeated this identification of the attackers in the days following the crimes. When he saw Cooper’s picture on television as the suspected attacker, Josh Ryen said “that’snot the man who did it,” according to the clemency request.

Josh Ryen later said he saw the shadow of one person in the house.

Cooper’s case has become a cause celebre, with supporters including Kim Kardashian, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, and others.