"Ind. woman sentenced to death at 16 to leave prison," is by Tim Evans of the Indianapolis Star and Gannett News. Here's the beginning:
Paula Cooper was 16 when she was sentenced to death for killing an elderly Bible study teacher.
That made the Gary, Ind., teen the youngest person ever in the state to face the death penalty. At the time in 1986, she also was the youngest Death Row inmate in the United States.
To many, Cooper was a monster beyond rehabilitation. But others saw her as a victim of an abusive childhood and racist criminal justice system.
A legal challenge and international campaign to overturn her death sentence, which included an appeal from Pope John Paul II, saved Cooper's life.
The Indiana Supreme Court commuted the death sentence in 1989 and sent her to prison for 60 years. For the past 24 years, she has lived in relative obscurity.
On Monday, Cooper will try to put all of that behind her when she walks out of the Rockville Correctional Facility.
It will be the 43-year-old's first taste of freedom since her arrest in 1985.
Cooper was 15 when she was charged with murder in the grisly stabbing of 78-year-old Ruth Pelke during a robbery. Three other co-defendants - also teenage girls at the time - went to prison but have been released.
"Paula Cooper Released: Ind. Woman Sentenced To Die At 16 To Walk Free," is the AP report by Charles Wilson, via Huffington Post.
Cooper's sister, Rhonda Labroi, said she hopes people will see Paula as more than a killer. After getting in trouble 23 times during her time in prison, Paula Cooper turned to education, earning a bachelor's degree in 2001.
"She was just a child at the time that happened, and now she is an adult and people should wait and see and give her a chance," Labroi said. "Give her an opportunity. Maybe she'll do some wonderful things for children who are growing up and aren't so fortunate, like she was.
"There are second chances," she said. "It seems like God has given her another chance. I think if people give her a second chance, she'll do fine."
Bill Pelke, Ruth's grandson, is a leader in the death penalty abolition movement and the founder of the Journey of Hope.
Comments