A young boy recently asked Mike Pence whether his job was to soften words for Donald Trump. As Trump continues to vacuum all available air from the news cycle, it is all too easy to forget that Pence has an actual job to do. More than just a straight man, Pence is the sitting Governor of Indiana and should be focusing on the needs of his citizens. Unfortunately, his campaign’s law-and-order rhetoric may be obscuring the demands of actual justice for individuals like the wrongfully-convicted Keith Cooper.
At Cleveland’s Convention, speaker after speaker drilled home the law-and-order message. Policy heavyweights ranging from Rudy Giuliani to Scott Baio weighed in on the rule of law in today’s America. Earlier in the campaign, Trump repeatedly imposed order at his own rallies, bouncing protestors and making (not-so) veiled calls for violence. Just the other week, he stood up to a loud-mouth infant at his event.
Pence is a soft-spoken Midwesterner. To date, Pence’s defining characteristic in the campaign is that he is categorically not Donald J. Trump. For one thing, Pence’s decade in Washington and time in Indianapolis give him far more actual governing experience than Trump. For another, Trump’s side-hustle is selling his wares, including Chinese-made ties; whereas Pence is a sitting chief executive of a state.
Trained as a lawyer, Pence should understand the basic functioning of the justice system. As a governor, he plays a major role in making sure the system works. Unfortunately, he has been biding his time while an injustice continues for a wrongfully-convicted man.
As the Indianapolis Star reported previously, Governor Pence has delayed action on a pardon for a wrongfully-convicted man for most of his governorship. In doing so, the Governor has actively chosen inaction over following the unanimous pardon recommendation of the state’s parole board.
Keith Cooper was incarcerated for over a decade for a crime he did not commit. Not only was his conviction based on recanted identifications, updated DNA evidence associated another man with the events at issue.
Cooper is requesting a pardon to remove the wrongful armed robbery conviction from his record. He was released from incarceration in 2006, but the recorded felony conviction has lingered.
The prosecutor who led the case against Cooper has gone so far as to write Governor Pence a letter urging the pardon so that Cooper can get on with his life, vote, and explore further employment opportunities. His letter claimed that “Justice demands that Mr. Cooper be pardoned.” While the wrongful imprisonment cannot be undone, according to the former prosecutor, “we can undo [Cooper’s] wrongful conviction with a pardon.”
A generous interpretation of the situation would paint Pence as pensively pondering Cooper’s pardon petition. More likely, the Governor is potentially posturing as a tough-on-crime politician in light of the presidential campaign.
It is an unfortunate reality that wrongful convictions can and do occur in American society. Part of providing law and order to citizens should be minimizing wrongful convictions. This wrongful conviction has robbed Cooper of a decade of his life and continues to constrain his civil liberties.
More than simply providing clean-up work for Mr. Trump, Governor Pence has the opportunity to set the record straight in this wrongful conviction case. Instead of posturing, America’s leaders should actively work to rectify and restore individuals’ lives, especially in cases that are as clear as that of Keith Cooper.
For more information, see the Indianapolis Star’s short video feature: “Keith Cooper: An Innocent Man.”