BOOKS: ​“Seventy Times Seven: A True Story of Murder and Mercy”

In Seventy Times Seven: A True Story of Murder and Mercy, author Alex Mar presents an in-depth account of a vio­lent homi­cide and its impact on a racial­ly divid­ed com­mu­ni­ty and the indi­vid­u­als involved. Mar not only dis­cuss­es the fears asso­ci­at­ed with mod­ern crime and pun­ish­ment but also address­es the human capac­i­ty for com­pas­sion and for­give­ness. 

In the pro­logue, Mar writes that ​“this is a sto­ry that asks what any com­mu­ni­ty is will­ing to accept as just con­se­quences — as jus­tice — for harm done. It is a dif­fi­cult ques­tion, one that each per­son in this book has been forced to con­front. Because what­ev­er the answer, its impact will be more sprawl­ing than pre­dict­ed, hard to con­tain. Whether or not we choose to acknowl­edge it, in ways very great or very small, the fates of neigh­bors are linked.” 

On a spring after­noon in May 1985, four teenage girls knocked on 78-year-old Ruth Pelke’s door in Gary, Indiana under the guise of look­ing for reli­gious guid­ance. Once inside, 15-year-old Paula Cooper attacked Ms. Pelke, blud­geon­ing, and stab­bing her to death. Police quick­ly arrest­ed Ms. Cooper and the oth­er teenagers involved, who all read­i­ly con­fessed to Ms. Pelke’s mur­der. Paula Cooper was sen­tenced to death in 1986, draw­ing wide­spread atten­tion to her case and the issue of juve­niles and the death penal­ty. Many sur­viv­ing Pelke rel­a­tives sup­port­ed Ms. Cooper’s death sen­tence, but this sup­port did not last with all fam­i­ly mem­bers. Bill Pelke, one of Ms. Pelke’s grand­chil­dren, had a rev­e­la­tion that his grand­moth­er would have cer­tain­ly for­giv­en Ms. Cooper for her actions, so he must do the same. Mr. Pelke said ​“that night [he] was con­vinced, beyond the shad­ow of a doubt, that [his] grand­moth­er would have had love and com­pas­sion for Paula Cooper and her fam­i­ly and that she want­ed [him] to have that same sort of love and com­pas­sion. [He] learned the most impor­tant les­son of [his] life that night. [He] real­ized [he] didn’t have to see some­body else die in order to bring heal­ing from Nana’s death.” 

In 1988, the United States Supreme Court in Thompson v. Oklahoma held that states could not man­date the death penal­ty for juve­niles under 16, and the Indiana Supreme Court com­mut­ed Ms. Cooper’s sen­tence to 60 years in prison. She was released in 2013, twen­ty-sev­en years after her initial conviction. 

Encouraged by the teach­ings of Gospel of Matthew, where Jesus com­mands Peter to for­give his broth­er ​“70 times sev­en” times, Mr. Pelke co-found­ed Journey of Hope, an advo­ca­cy orga­ni­za­tion con­sist­ing of fam­i­ly mem­bers of mur­der vic­tims who con­duct speak­ing tours on alter­na­tives to the death penal­ty. Through work­ing with his orga­ni­za­tion, Mr. Pelke shared his expe­ri­ence and sto­ry in more than 40 states and 15 coun­tries. Prior to his death in November 2020, Mr. Pelke served on the board of sev­er­al anti-death penal­ty groups, includ­ing Death Penalty Action, the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, and Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights.