Yesterday was busy for this pardon effort. In the morning, for the first time, the petition got some press attention with a front page article in the Indianapolis Star: http://www.indystar.com/story/news/investigations/stolen-freedom/2016/09/20/keith-cooper-supporters-eye-new-target-quest-pardon/90702860/. That, apparently, got the attention of Pence (and probably the Indiana GOP) because for the first time ever, by the afternoon, Governor Pence’s legal counsel issued a public reply on his behalf regarding a pardon for Keith Cooper. This was reported in the Chicago Tribune: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-mike-pence-keith-cooper-pardon-request-met-20160920-story.html. This has been picked by the Washington Times and I anticipate there will be a number of additional news reports over the next few days. Publicity helps us, but the answers we got yesterday were variations on one answer to a pardon for Keith Cooper: “No.” Mike Pence has communicated that he will not pardon Keith Cooper. The first thing to know is that your calls to the Elkhart County Prosecutor’s Office are working! Governor Pence would not suddenly, after 30 months of silence, contact Keith Cooper’s lawyer with a punt to the next governor if he weren’t concerned with what we have been doing to Curtis Hill’s office. The first thing for us to do, therefore, is to keep up the pressure which has finally gotten us a response. Please continue calling Curtis Hill’s office: 574-296-1888. Also continue calling the office of Governor Mike Pence: 317-232-4567. See Monday’s update if you want to consider some talking points: https://www.change.org/p/indiana-governor-pardon-an-innocent-man/u/17900258. If you like, consider adding that we do not take Pence’s “No” as an appropriate answer. No #1: No comment from Curtis Hill. From the Star article: “The Elkhart County prosecutor's office received ‘a lot of calls’ Monday, said a legal assistant for Hill. Through the assistant, Hill declined to comment, citing a busy schedule.” I have no sympathy for Mr. Hill’s busy schedule, which is busy only for the purpose of advancing his political ambition. Mike Pence’s legal counsel wrote a letter on his behalf within hours of the Star article’s publication. It would not take 30 minutes for Curtis Hill to write a memo to Governor Pence asking him to go ahead and pardon Cooper. Curtis Hill is not doing this because he doesn’t want to do this, and so, we should continue to pressure him. Please do. No #2: From a Pence spokesman in the Star: “Matt Lloyd, a spokesman for Pence, said no decision has been made regarding the pardon.” 106,000 people have concluded that Keith Cooper deserves a pardon from Mike Pence, and they have done this since August 1, 2016. Governor Pence has had the pardon recommendation from the Indiana Parole Board since March 2014, more than 30 months ago. Exactly how long does it take for a person to reach a decision about this pardon? A person could repeat Matt Lloyd’s statement for 30 more years, and theoretically, hypothetically, imaginatively, farcically it could still be “true.” But justice delayed is justice denied, and Keith Cooper has been legally guilty for almost 20 years. Matt Lloyd’s answer is no source of hope. No #3 takes the most consideration. It is the letter from Governor Pence’s legal counsel attached as a document to the Chicago Tribune article. In it, his counsel, Mark Ahearn, says that until Cooper’s lawyer has exhausted all other available “judicial remedies,” there will be no pardon from the governor. There is some disagreement over whether there are any remaining “judicial remedies” to be pursued. Keith Cooper’s lawyer has gotten a legal opinion from an experienced appeals court lawyer who has concluded that Cooper is procedurally barred from appealing his case further in the courts. The reason would be the agreement Cooper signed in 2006 to be released from prison with the robbery conviction still on his record. Mark Ahearn says that Cooper may appeal anyway, but if that is so, wouldn’t that undercut the meaning of any and all such deals made with other incarcerated people, many of whom have been guilty? Ahearn dismisses the opinion of the appeals court lawyer as the work of a public defender, but he is not an underpaid intern in his first year out of law school. There are good reasons to believe that normally, an agreement such as Cooper made in 2006 would stand. But if, indeed, there were a way to move forward, the people Cooper’s lawyer would first have to get around is . . . Curtis Hill and the Elkhart County Prosecutor’s Office. If Hill would now drop any and all opposition to an appeal, even one that his deal originally prohibited, then Hill can save the Elkhart County taxpayers a lot of money by recommending a pardon, getting one from Governor Pence, and skipping the expense of an appeals trial. So this “no” is a “no until you do everything else that we and usual legal reasoning will oppose every step of the way.” There is one other point to make about this “no”: An actually innocent African American man is apparently less significant to Pence and Ahearn than the niceties of the flawed justice system which has worked against him for almost 20 years, since Cooper’s arrest in 1997. Why must justice be delayed even further as Pence would rather leave Cooper’s case to the whims of the system which screwed him in the first place? Pence has pardoned three people who were actually guilty of the crimes for which he pardoned them. But not Cooper. No #4: The Chicago Tribune calls it a punt: “The [Ahearn] letter essentially allows the Republican vice presidential candidate to avoid ruling on [Cooper’s] claim of innocence until a new Indiana governor takes over in January.” This is Pence’s most definitive “no.” Just leave it to the next guy. The problem with this is that the next Indiana Attorney General may be Curtis Hill and the next governor may be Pence’s choice, Eric Holcomb. How do we know we will get a “yes” from them? Pence has a moral obligation, which he ignores at every opportunity, to grant Keith Cooper a pardon. This is not something he should be leaving to his successor. This punt, however, does lead us to a new strategy, a new effort we need to try. Earlier in this petition effort, we tried to get a pledge for a pardon from the current candidates to be the next Indiana governor. Neither of them has responded so far. In addition to continuing to call the offices of Hill and Pence, would you consider renewing a call to John Gregg, the Democratic candidate, and to Eric Holcomb, the Republican candidate, asking them to support a pardon? Phone number and email links for the John Gregg campaign: http://www.greggforgovernor.com/contact/ Email link for the Eric Holcomb campaign: https://action.holcombforindiana.com/comment/contact-us_20160830/. Phone number to “Ask Eric,” the Lieutenant Governor’s office: 317-232-4545. Though this update gives us a whole lot of “no,” the “yes” in all of this is that we are having an effect. Thank you for the calls and emails, and please keep up the good work of justice for Keith Cooper. Jack Heller