Paula Cooper, Youngest Person Sentenced to Death in Indiana, To Be Released From Prison

Paula Cooper, who was 15 years old at the time of her crime, and the youngest per­son ever sen­tenced to death in Indiana, will be released from prison on June 17, twen­ty-sev­en years after her con­vic­tion for the mur­der of 78-year-old Ruth Pelke. Her case received inter­na­tion­al atten­tion, spark­ing a cam­paign that led to the com­mu­ta­tion of her death sen­tence to 60 years in prison. An appeal to the Indiana Supreme Court received over 2 mil­lion sig­na­tures from around the world. Pope John Paul II asked that Cooper’s sen­tence be reduced. Bill Pelke, the grand­son of Ruth Pelke, for­gave and befriend­ed Cooper and wrote a book, Journey of Hope…From Violence to Healing, about his expe­ri­ence with the case. 

Pelke also found­ed Journey of Hope, an orga­ni­za­tion led by mur­der vic­tims’ fam­i­ly mem­bers that con­ducts speak­ing tours on alter­na­tives to the death penal­ty, with an empha­sis on com­pas­sion and for­give­ness. He has advo­cat­ed for Cooper’s release and recent­ly reflect­ed, ​“I knew my grand­moth­er would not want [her] grand­fa­ther to have to go through what [my] grand­fa­ther had to go through, to see a grand­daugh­ter that he loved strapped to the elec­tric chair and have volts of elec­tric­i­ty put to her until she was dead.” In a 2004 inter­view with the Indianapolis Star, Cooper expressed remorse for her crime, say­ing, ​“Everybody has a respon­si­bil­i­ty to do right or wrong, and if you do wrong, you should be pun­ished. Rehabilitation comes from you. If you’re not ready to be reha­bil­i­tat­ed, you won’t be.” During her time in prison, Cooper earned a col­lege degree, trained assis­tance dogs, and tutored oth­er pris­on­ers. In 1988, the U.S. Supreme Court held that states could not man­date the death penal­ty for those under the age of 16 at the time of their crime, and in 2005, the Court barred the death penal­ty for all juve­nile offenders.

(T. Evans, ​“Ind. woman sen­tenced to death at 16 to leave prison,” USA Today, June 16, 2013; M. Edge, ​“Murder Victim’s Grandson Helps Free Assailant,” KTVA, May 23, 2013). See Juveniles and Victims.