Attorneys for death-row inmate Kevin Cooper filed their response Monday to the state's opposition to Cooper's petition to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In the response, Cooper's attorneys repeated his claims that he's not responsible for killing four people in Chino Hills in 1983 and asked the high court to intervene in his case.

Monday's filing is the last procedural step before the Supreme Court decides whether to hear Cooper's case. The court will probably announce its decision this month, according

to one of Cooper's attorneys.
In its opposition to Cooper's petition, the state Attorney General's Office detailed the substantial body of evidence pointing to Cooper's guilt and urged the court not to take up Cooper's case.

On Monday, Cooper's attorneys repeated much of what they wrote in their September request for the court to intervene.

Cooper argued that court hearings in 2004 and 2005 to review evidence in his case were unfair because some of the evidence was unavailable and that some of the tests he believes indicate his innocence were deemed inadmissible.

In their Monday filing, Cooper's attorneys urged the court to hear the case to clarify legal procedures in appellate cases that are based on an inmate's claims of innocence.

An appeals court in 2004 issued a stay on Cooper's execution on the day it was scheduled to be carried out.