It was 20 years ago that Keith Cooper was stopped by police while walking to his nearby apartment in Elkhart, Ind., after buying groceries at a neighborhood store for his three children’s breakfast.
That morning’s arrest set off a tragic chain of events that would rip apart his young family and take two decades to correct. On Friday, one day after Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb officially pardoned him for a violent armed robbery he did not commit, but for which he spent nearly a decade in prison, Cooper tried to find the right words to express how he felt.
"I got my name back," Cooper, now 49 and living outside Chicago in Country Club Hills, told reporters during a news conference at his lawyer’s Chicago firm while describing his wrongful conviction. "I walked to the store and never came back. It was hard. It was a hard journey for us all and being that I missed out on my kids growing up."
Cooper, who at the time of the arrest had a clean criminal history and was working two jobs to support his family, said his youngest son was 1 at the time. The boy recently turned 21. Standing beside him Friday were his daughter, Lakeisha; his wife, Nicole; his former wife, Sheryl Crigler; his mother, Barbara Moorehead; and several other relatives and supporters.
After just one month in office, Holcomb pardoned Cooper who had been wrongfully convicted of the 1996 armed robbery, which involved a shooting that left one man clinging to life. Cooper’s pardon request had remained in limbo for nearly three years, and now-Vice President Mike Pence left the Indiana governor’s office without acting.
Petitioning for a pardon
Keith Cooper, a Country Club Hills resident and Chicago native, petitioned Indiana Gov. Mike Pence for a pardon for a violent 1996 robbery that DNA evidence shows he didn’t commit. (Christy Gutowski / Chicago Tribune)
Keith Cooper, a Country Club Hills resident and Chicago native, petitioned Indiana Gov. Mike Pence for a pardon for a violent 1996 robbery that DNA evidence shows he didn’t commit. (Christy Gutowski / Chicago Tribune)
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Experts say it the first time in Indiana history a gubernatorial pardon was granted based on actual innocence.
At Friday’s news conference, Cooper thanked Holcomb for the pardon. And while he recognized that Pence is now the vice president, he said Pence had abandoned him before leaving the governor’s office.
"He should have apologized and gave me the pardon," Cooper said. "I’m very thankful that (Holcomb) had the heart to do what Pence couldn’t do. He left me. He abandoned me. But, thanks to Gov. Holcomb, I’m free again."
The Tribune was the first to profile the confounding case in March 2015. Since then, several national media outlets have chronicled Cooper’s quest, leading to an online petition campaign started by Jack Heller, an associate professor of English at an Indiana university. The petition garnered more than 100,000 signatures, and Cooper’s case has an active social media following.
Cooper’s children were still young when he began serving a 40-year prison term. The Indiana Court of Appeals overturned a co-defendant’s conviction and ordered a new trial in December 2005. Prosecutors dropped charges against the man, Christopher Parish, before his second trial began. Parish eventually was awarded a $5 million federal civil rights settlement.
Cooper was given the choice of a new trial before the judge who had convicted him or being released as a convicted felon. He opted to go home in 2006 to his wife and children, who at times were homeless and lived in shelters while he was in prison, Cooper said.
Pence’s successor pardons wrongly convicted Chicago-area man after years in Indiana prison Christy Gutowski
The new governor of Indiana on Thursday pardoned a wrongfully convicted Chicago-area man who spent nearly a decade in prison for an armed robbery and shooting, marking what experts say is the first time in that state’s history a gubernatorial pardon was granted based on actual innocence.
Indiana…
The new governor of Indiana on Thursday pardoned a wrongfully convicted Chicago-area man who spent nearly a decade in prison for an armed robbery and shooting, marking what experts say is the first time in that state’s history a gubernatorial pardon was granted based on actual innocence.
Indiana…
(Christy Gutowski)
After his release, Cooper said, he put his legal ordeal behind him until 2008 when a recent college graduate working on the co-defendant’s lawsuit put the pieces of the puzzle together. Eliot Slosar was interning with the Exoneration Project, a joint venture between the Chicago law firm Loevy & Loevy and the University of Chicago Law School at the time.
Slosar, now a wrongful conviction attorney, said he wanted to find the truth. He was the one who told Cooper he had been pardoned.
DNA evidence long ago pointed to another man as the shooter, and the victims and former prosecutor who helped convict him have long said Cooper is innocent. In March 2014, after the victims recanted and made an impassioned plea on Cooper’s behalf, the Indiana Parole Board unanimously recommended that Pence grant the pardon.
"He’s an innocent man and the state of Indiana has finally recognized it," said Slosar, who plans to file an expungement petition on Cooper’s behalf. "It should not have taken this long."
Video: ‘I want my name back’
Keith Cooper speaks during a Feb. 3, 2014, Indiana Parole Board hearing. (Courtesy of Eliot Slosar of Loevy & Loevy)
Keith Cooper speaks during a Feb. 3, 2014, Indiana Parole Board hearing. (Courtesy of Eliot Slosar of Loevy & Loevy)
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Still, in a September 2016 letter, Pence’s general counsel told Cooper he first must pursue all possible judicial options before the governor will act on the pardon request. The move essentially allowed Pence, then a Republican vice presidential candidate, to avoid ruling on Cooper’s claim of innocence until a new Indiana governor took over in January.
Gov. Holcomb cited the state parole board’s support for the pardon, along with the backing of the prosecutor and witnesses in the case.
Besides the robbery conviction, Cooper had asked to be pardoned for battery he committed in custody. Cooper said he broke a man’s jaw in self-defense during an attempted sexual assault in jail. Holcomb said he declined to act on the battery because Cooper has admitted his guilt.
cmgutowski@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @christygutowsk1
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