Dressed in a Santa outfit and calling himself "Insanity Claus," counter-culture icon Wavy Gravy and three other anti-death penalty protesters were arrested yesterday at the East Gate of San Quentin State Prison, where condemned inmate Kevin Cooper is scheduled to die Tuesday.

Gravy, 69, also known as Hugh Romney of Berkeley, was arrested peacefully by California Highway Patrol officers after he and others blocked entrance to the prison's iron gates. The CHP also arrested Hal Carlstad, 78, of Kensington; Paul Sawyer, 69, of Pasadena; and Louis Vitale, 71, of San Francisco. Bail was set at $602 for each.

"Why are we killing people to show killing people is wrong?" said Gravy, decked out in the Santa suit and wearing a red clown nose and large red sunglasses.

The incident occurred shortly before noon, when the four who were to be arrested joined arms and marched up to the prison's gates while a small group of other protesters waited behind a painted line on the pavement that designates the border of the state prison property.

"We're going to contact the Marin County sheriff," prison spokesman Vernell Crittendon told the group from behind the gate.

"The sooner the better," said Gravy, best known for being a master of ceremonies at the original Woodstock and a friend to almost every notable rock star in the 1960s.

CHP officers showed up a short time later and, after trying to wait out the protesters for another 30 minutes, Lt. David Fairbrother and a handful of others moved in.

Fairbrother shook hands and introduced himself to each protester, then listened as each spoke against capital punishment. After they finished, the protesters were handcuffed, searched and led off to waiting squad cars that drove them to the Marin County Jail.

The arrests came after a group calling itself The Religious Imperative to Stop State Murder organized a Monday night sleepover for six protesters outside the prison gates. Another dozen or so protesters showed up yesterday morning for an interfaith prayer service.

Many protesters clutched copies of full-page advertisements from the New York Times and San Jose Mercury News that called into question the guilt of Cooper, 45. He received a death sentence for the 1983 quadruple murder of a husband and wife, their daughter and a child houseguest in San Bernardino County after he escaped from prison.

Crittendon said protests aren't unusual before executions. He also said Cooper is the only condemned inmate who has actively organized anti-death penalty groups leading up to his execution.

"He's trying to sway public opinion," Crittendon said.

Because of Cooper's efforts, Crittendon said prison officials are expecting about 500 protesters Monday night - up from the usual 300 or so - in advance of the scheduled 12:01 a.m. Tuesday execution. Crittendon said Cooper had called in live to anti-death penalty rallies in Berkeley and Sacramento and has written to numerous anti-death penalty groups since his execution date was set Dec. 17.

Crittendon said Cooper's tactics have organized the usually fractured anti-death penalty groups. "Now they are working as a coalition," he said.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, actor Mike Farrell and other activists rallied yesterday on the steps of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's church, St. Monica Parish in Los Angeles, in an effort to halt the execution of Cooper, whose bid for clemency was turned down by the governor last week.

"It is a personal appeal to a person of faith," Eric DeBode, the head of California People of Faith Working Against the Death Penalty and the organizer of the rally at Schwarzenegger's parish, told the Associated Press.

"We want to reach out to him, he has the weight of this death on his shoulders," DeBode said.

The interfaith rally there began with prayers and teenagers holding up anti-death penalty signs. A banner declared "Boundless love, endless mercy."

Jackson and Farrell told the group that evidence suggests there might have been another killer or killers.

Farrell told the group an 8-year-old boy who survived the attack initially said the killings were carried out by three white people. Cooper is black.

Jackson said he became interested in the case because he feels "the overwhelming evidence points to Mr. Cooper's possible innocence."

Added Jackson, "We want an examination, not a termination."