Gov. Holcomb pardons Keith Cooper

Keith Cooper was convicted nearly 20 years ago of a crime he did not commit. On Thursday, he was finally pardoned.

Gov. Eric Holcomb issued the pardon to the former Elkhart resident who was put behind bars based on what his attorney would later describe as problematic witness statements, police actions and DNA results.

Cooper's plight became widely known following a 2015 IndyStar series on wrongful convictions. Although Cooper was released from prison in 2006, he said he has struggled to advance in a career and overcome the stigma associated with the felony conviction.

The executive order Thursday by the new Republican governor follows Vice President Mike Pence's refusal to pardon Cooper before leaving office.

Keith Cooper: A man imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit

Cooper asked the former governor for a pardon on an armed robbery conviction, a crime for which Cooper had maintained innocence since he was arrested in Elkhart in January 1997. He would later spend more than eight years in prison.

The Chicago native had moved to the Indiana city months earlier to try to build a better life for his wife and three young children. He was convicted and sentenced to 40 years in prison later that year.

Holcomb said the pardon is for Cooper’s robbery conviction. A separate battery conviction was not pardoned.

“After careful and thoughtful consideration and review, something I’ve thought about every day over the last month, just earlier today I issued a pardon to Mr. Keith Cooper for his past and I believe wrongful armed robbery felony," Holcomb told reporters at a Thursday news conference.

"I did so because since that conviction in 1997, many pieces of information that were out and about that had been brought forward since have changed, including a victim, an informant, even the deputy prosecutor who convicted Mr. Cooper on that first crime, all have stated support or no objection to a pardon.”

A separate battery conviction was not pardoned. Cooper in 1997 pleaded guilty to that felony charge. He said he was defending himself against an inmate while in the Elkhart County Jail on the robbery charge. Cooper sought a pardon on that conviction, too, though Holcomb said Cooper never claimed innocence on that charge.

“I am very much at peace pardoning him for the one he claims innocence on,” Holcomb said, “and he has from the very outset, and I believe he is innocent of that crime.”

Cooper was released from prison after a 2006 deal: He could withdraw his petition that sought exoneration and, in exchange, could walk out of jail a free man. The deal was offered by the Elkhart County prosecutor, Curtis Hill, who is now serving his first term as Indiana's attorney general.

Hill, who was not the prosecutor when Cooper was wrongly convicted, said Thursday in an email to IndyStar that "it's the governor’s prerogative to issue pardons as he sees fit."

In November, Hill went on the record to defend Cooper's conviction in a court filing opposing Cooper's request for a new trial.

"The conviction and sentence entered against said defendant were proper under Indiana law and the defendant's petition is completely without merit,"  a legal filing from the prosecutor's office said.

On Thursday, Hill said, "We trust he (Holcomb) reviewed the evidence and the record carefully in this case before reaching his decision. We all have our respective jobs to do, and we look forward to continuing to work with Gov. Holcomb."

Facts of Cooper's case

On the night of Oct. 29, 1996, two men tried to rob someone in the same apartment complex where the Coopers lived. Elkhart Police Department Detective Stephen Rezutko identified one of the two suspects, Christopher Parish. He was the shorter, stockier suspect.

The other suspect — the one who shot and almost killed one of the victims during a scuffle — was still on the loose.

This suspect was described as a tall skinny black man. Rezutko saw Cooper for the first time at the police station after he was arrested on allegations of purse snatching. He was taller than 6 feet, and he weighed 170 pounds at most.

The veteran detective told the apartment robbery victims of his new discovery. The man who had been shot, 17-year-old Michael Kershner, positively identified Cooper.

“I remember this man as being real tall,” Kershner said in the police report. “He was the one who came into the apartment first after I opened the door. He had a long barreled handgun when he came in. … He shot me in the hip. … I told (Rezutko) I am very sure that this is the man.”

As Cooper sat in the county jail, awaiting his trial in the purse-snatching case, Rezutko questioned him. Cooper said he was taken to a small room, where the detective showed him the police report on the attempted murder and armed robbery incident, along with all the victims’ and witnesses’ names. “They identified you,” Cooper recalled Rezutko telling him.

“This is crap,” he told the detective. “I didn’t do the crime I’m going to trial for, let alone this one.”

About a month after he was arrested, a jury found Cooper not guilty in the purse-snatching case. He was taken back to the Elkhart County Jail after the verdict to be processed for his release. He was then charged with armed robbery and attempted murder.

Missteps of justice

In 1997, Cooper, who now lives in Chicago, was convicted of armed robbery and sentenced to 40 years in prison. But by 2005, the evidence that landed him behind bars was unraveling.

He petitioned for exoneration. He withdrew the petition in the 2006 deal with Hill to walk free.

Since 2009 Cooper, 49, has sought a pardon with the help of Elliot Slosar, attorney for the Exoneration Project at the University of Chicago Law School.

Slosar said Thursday he is pleased that justice is finally served.

"The courageous decision by Gov. Holcomb has provided a measure of happiness and closure to all the victims in this case — the victims of these tragic and senseless crimes, and Keith Cooper, a victim in his own right, who lost a decade of his life for a crime he did not commit," Slosar said.

Slosar is planning a news conference Friday.

In October, Slosar filed the petition that asked an Elkhart Circuit Court judge to grant Cooper a new trial — an attempt to fulfill Pence's request that Cooper exhaust his options in court before seeking a pardon from the governor's office.

The petition said an "unprecedented" amount of newly discovered evidence meant that Cooper's conviction should be vacated. It referenced witnesses who later recanted their statements and said the lead detective heavily influenced their identification of Cooper from a photo lineup. It also argued that DNA from a hat worn by the perpetrator pointed to a different suspect, a man who is serving a 60-year prison sentence in Michigan for second-degree murder.

Pence's request that Cooper seek a new trial was largely seen as a way of leaving Cooper's potential pardon to Indiana's next governor.

Emotional moment

The news of Cooper's pardon reverberated through the halls of the Statehouse on Thursday. Holcomb's decision touched other lawmakers.

House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, said the pardon gave him a new perspective on the new governor.

"He took a deep dive in the facts, and he felt very confident that the felony he was convicted of, not the one that occurred in prison, he needed to be pardoned on that," Bosma said. "I support him on that regard, and I appreciate him spending so much time on one person.

"I think that says a lot about Eric Holcomb and where his heart lies."

Caleb Walden, an east-side resident who started a Twitter campaign urging a pardon, was moved as well.

"This is a good first step," he said, "but there's still a lot of questions that need to be answered. Why is the battery conviction not pardoned?

"This needed to happen four or five years ago."

Call IndyStar reporter Fatima Hussein at (317) 444-6209. Follow her on Twitter: @fatimathefatima.

Other actions Gov. Eric Holcomb announced Thursday:

Issuing an executive order to declare a disaster emergency for an area of East Chicago grappling with lead contamination.

Ending contract talks for a cellphone tower leasing deal that former Gov. Mike Pence, now vice president, had assured Hoosiers would fund $50 million in bicentennial projects. The funding never materialized.

Tapping former Pence chief of staff, Jim Atterholt, to return to his role as chairman of the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission. Atterholt served as the commission’s chairman from 2009 to 2014.