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Vice presidential candidate and Indiana Governor Mike Pence has the ability to give an innocent man his life back.
In 1997, Keith Cooper was wrongly accused and convicted of a crime he did not commit.
He was sentenced to 40 years for a horrible robbery, but it later
became apparent a miscarriage of justice had occurred. A jailhouse
informant against Cooper recanted his testimony and a DNA test on a hat
recovered at the scene of the crime matched a different man serving time
for a 2002 murder. Even the robbery victims, pushed by an investigator
to identify Cooper, have said that they misidentified him.
In
2006, as the case against Cooper began to fall apart, he was offered a
deal to get out of prison. He could be retried, waiting for his trial
while still in prison, or he could be released with time served, though
with his conviction still on his record. Having heard that his family was living in a homeless shelter, Cooper took the deal. He has been released from prison.
Because Cooper hasn’t received a pardon, he is still listed as a convicted felon. An innocent man still has to suffer the loss of many rights because he has not been pardoned.
Keith Cooper struggles to find good work to support his family, and
cannot get the compensation he deserves for the wrongful conviction.
Both
the Indiana Parole Board and the prosecutor of the case against him
have recommended a full pardon for Keith Cooper. A full pardon is the
only way to right this wrong. Indiana Governor and Vice Presidential
candidate Mike Pence has had a request for Cooper's pardon since March
2014. Please tell him to grant the pardon now.
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Editor's note: We all know that innocent people. in spite of a system designed to preserve the rights of the accused, are occasionally convicted, while the guilty go free. That appears to be the case, here.
48,179 signatures still needed to reach the goal of 150,000.
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