Good morning, I have created a new petition exclusively for the purpose of calling upon Elaine Quijano to question Mike Pence about this pardon: https://www.change.org/p/elaine-quijano-ask-pence-about-a-pardon-for-keith-cooper Elaine Quijano is a reporter for CBS News, and she has been chosen to moderate the October 4 debate between Mike Pence and Tim Kaine. So this new petition will only be active until the debate itself. The key strategy for the new petition is both to sign it and share it with Ms. Quijano, either by Twitter, @Elaine_Quijano, or by comment, posting, or messaging on her Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Elaine-Quijano-646196552180916/. I do ask you not to address Ms. Quijano as if she were opposed to the cause for this petition. We are concerned voters who believe that one of the candidates has not adequately responded to a major concern of ours. As Quijano is moderating the debate on behalf of the voters, we want to ask her to question Pence, not to let him off the hook on this pardon. Since Pence's decision was publicized earlier this week, I want to address in more depth his expectation that Keith Cooper and his lawyer keep working through the courts. I am going to take it for granted that people who have signed this petition have been persuaded that Keith Cooper is indeed innocent of the 1997 robbery for which he seeks a pardon. The evidence for his innocence is essentially indisputable, including a lot more than we have ever discussed. (If this drags on for weeks, sooner or later we need to discuss the police work that got Cooper arrested back in 1997. it would affirm the deep presence of racial bias in criminal justice.) Pence must either not believe in Cooper's innocence, which would therefore affirm his own racial bias towards the stigma of endemic black criminality, or he is calculating poltically on what plays best for him. Telling Cooper's lawyer to pursue all remaining "judicial remedies" (if indeed there are any) may seem to uphold the integrity of the judicial system, but this is the same judicial system which has screwed Keith Cooper every step of the way. And I don't mean this abstractly: If there truly is any way forward in the court, it would have to go to the Elkhart County (IN) court and the same current Elkhart County prosecutor, Curtis Hill, who extended all of this trouble in the first place. This, by analogy, is to send a kid back to a bully to ask the bully to, pretty please, stop throwing sand in his face. Furthermore, taking as a given that Cooper is innocent, why should Elkhart County and Indiana taxpayers foot the bill for hearings and a trial, when Cooper's innocence is enough of a reason for a pardon? The fiscally conservative action here would be to grant an obvious pardon. Then they can get on with the also obvious and costly next step of Elkhart County compensating Cooper for ten years of wrongful incarceration and another ten of legal machinations. There has been so much press about this case in the past week. Below are some that I think add to our cause. And so far, there has not been even one article in support of Pence's decision not to pardon Cooper. (I wouldn't post that here even if there were one. Just sayin', but there hasn't been one.) Some of these are repeats, but they show a timeline for the week: Indianapolis Star: http://www.indystar.com/story/news/investigations/stolen-freedom/2016/09/20/keith-cooper-supporters-eye-new-target-quest-pardon/90702860/ Chicago Tribune: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-mike-pence-keith-cooper-pardon-request-met-20160920-story.html Wrongful Convictions Blog: https://wrongfulconvictionsblog.org/2016/09/21/mike-pence-delays-pardon-decision-innocent-man-struggles-with-undeserved-felon-label/ Chicago Sun-Times: http://chicago.suntimes.com/opinion/editorial-pence-puts-politics-ahead-of-fairness-for-innocent-man/ Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette: http://www.journalgazette.net/opinion/editorials/Unconscionable-delay-15376330 Elkhart Truth (the newspaper of record for Elkhart County): http://www.elkharttruth.com/hometown/elkhart/advocates-for-keith-cooper-s-pardon-seek-support-from-elkhart/article_c1fa9338-b38e-5b4f-bdcd-29d5256fbca7.html 21Alive (with video): http://www.21alive.com/news/local/Chicago-man-denied-pardon-after-wrongful-conviction-supporters-outraged-394377401.html