Friends, We have added several thousand signatures since Monday the 2nd, after the BuzzFeed article went online the previous week. This week’s Washington Post article also added many to the conversation. With the new attention comes a whole lot of new people asking questions. So this will be a post trying to answer as many questions as I have seen commonly online. In the comments section to this post, if you have new questions, please ask. Be aware, though, that once a question has been answered, I will consider that part of the discussion as completed. I will not get dragged into an endless loop of discussion on any of this. Question: Can a pardon be granted for a person who is actually innocent? Yes. On October 6, I posted on whether a pardon could clear Keith Cooper’s record of his felony conviction. It could if it is a pardon based upon his actual innocence, as affirmed and recommended by a parole board. These pardons are typically called full or absolute pardons. The laws governing such pardons vary from state to state, and Indiana’s law allows for a full exoneration and the expunging of Cooper’s felony conviction. We may note that Tim Kaine, the former governor of Virginia and the current Democratic candidate to vice president, has issued a few such pardons: http://www.richmond.com/news/article_09460af3-f178-5794-9ecd-1ec3d5c9bf2a.html. Mike Pence may do so for Keith Cooper, but he has so far refused to do so. Question: Wouldn’t it be better for Keith Cooper to go through the legal process and to be cleared in the court? The answer is no, neither for him nor for the citizens of Indiana. It would be better for everyone concerned for this to be resolved by a pardon. There are several reasons: • A new trial delays justice, and justice for Keith Cooper has been delayed and delayed and delayed again. And delayed again. Next year will be the 20th year since Cooper was arrested, tried, and convicted on the robbery charge. A new trial, if one goes forward, could take a year or more to be completed. Mike Pence can end this right now with a pardon. • For Cooper’s case to move forward, the Elkhart County Prosecutor Curtis Hill would have to agree that the deal he made with Cooper in 2006—Cooper’s release on time served with his conviction still on the record—is not the deal. And this does all come back to Curtis Hill. His office offered the deal in April 2006 at a time when he had to know that the case against Keith Cooper was unraveling. The concurrent case against Christopher Parrish had fallen apart in December 2005, and in March 2006, Hill’s office received the DNA test results positively identifying the DNA on the hat with Johlanis Ervin, a man doing time in Michigan for a 2002 murder there. Going through the legal process puts Cooper right back in front of the same prosecutor and his office wh0 screwed him with the bad offer the first time. • Keep in mind that although we know that Keith Cooper is innocent of the 1997 robbery, on the record he is still guilty of that crime. Therefore, going back to court could jeopardize the freedom Keith Cooper currently has. Mike Pence’s demand that this go back to court doesn’t account for the fact that he is essentially requiring Cooper to violate the terms for his release from prison. Cooper agreed not to appeal his conviction. As a convicted felon, if Cooper violates the terms for his release by returning to court, he could be asked for bail or, even worse, have his original sentence reinstated as he waits for a new trial. I must say, if the prosecutor’s office really pursues either of these actions, then we would need a national protest, a national outcry, against a governor who could end this all now with his pardon. This would be most maddening of all possible outcomes, and it’s legally possible. • Finally, a new trial, if one goes forward, is going to cost the taxpayers of Indiana, particularly of Elkhart County, tens of thousands of dollars, to the judge, to the prosecutor, to the court reporters, and to everyone else involved in carrying this case forward. And for what? Keith Cooper deserves justice, and the Indiana taxpayers deserve to have as little ongoing foolishness for what seems to be an inevitable conclusion if we believe that some measure of justice will come eventually. Comparing the cost of a piece of paper to the cost of a trial, no one can credit Mike Pence with fiscal conservatism in his response to this case. Question: Why not go to President Obama to pardon Keith Cooper? President Obama has the authority to pardon persons convicted of federal crimes in federal courts; governors have the authority to pardon individuals convicted on state charges in state courts. Keith Cooper was convicted of armed robbery resulting in serious injury in a court of the state of Indiana. Having said this, however, if individuals really want to spend their time asking President Obama to pardon Cooper, it may give the president an opportunity to shame Pence for not pardoning Cooper. If that’s the goal one wants, I say go for it. But our efforts here will be to ask Pence directly to pardon Cooper. It's his responsibility, not President Obama's. Question: Why didn’t the previous governor, Mitch Daniels, pardon Cooper? I believe this question is based upon an error in a video which has now been shared over 3 million times on Facebook, the NowThis video. Mitch Daniels had a far better record than Pence has for issuing pardons during his time as governor, for which I will give Daniels credit. Daniels did not pardon Cooper because he hadn’t been asked to pardon Cooper. In Indiana, a request for a pardon must go first to the Indiana Parole Board for their recommendation. Cooper first requested a parole board hearing while Daniels was governor, but the hearing did not occur until 2014, during Pence’s administration. So the opportunity to pardon Cooper has always belonged to Pence. Question/Comment: Tough luck, Keith Cooper shouldn’t have pleaded guilty to get out of prison. Keith Cooper has never pleaded guilty to the robbery, not in 1997, not in 2006, and he won’t plead guilty if he is retried. The deal in 2006 did not require him to plead guilty. It did require him to keep his conviction on his record. In other words, as far as the court was concerned in 2006, Cooper was already guilty, and he would have to live with it to get out of prison. A person may reasonably hold the opinion that he shouldn’t have taken the deal, but not taking the deal would have left him in prison for years longer as his appeal made its way through court. Meanwhile, his family would not have had his help as they had already had to sell most of their possessions and move into a homeless shelter. Cooper took the deal to help his family, and for this I will not fault him. Question: Are we just a bunch of Hillary Clinton supporters? The very first public official to state his support for Keith Cooper’s pardon was Indiana state representative David Ober, a Republican from Elkhart County. I believe Nancy Petro, who has advocated for Keith Cooper’s pardon in the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, is a Republican. I want to thank them again for their support. I do not believe that people of good will who want to see an injustice corrected and justice done may all be divided by their political affiliations. I have had messages from Republicans and conservatives who have signed this petition. I first heard about Keith Cooper’s case in late July of this year, and honestly, I did not believe that Pence would actually decline to pardon Keith Cooper. However, Governor Pence has had the request for Keith Cooper’s pardon since March 2014. It did not have to come to all of this negative attention that Pence is now bringing upon himself. If he doesn’t want any more of it, if he wants to get beyond this issue, and perhaps reduce the thousands of Facebook postings and tweets calling him a racist, then Pence knows what he should do. I hope that this helps you to respond to any questions people are now raising about Keith Cooper’s pardon. On Monday morning, I plan to post an update with several courses of action you, our petition supporters, may take. Meanwhile, have a good weekend! And thank you for your support! Jack Heller