Paula Cooper’s Attorney Says Pope Has Made Appeal For Teen’s Life
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) _ Pope John Paul II has urged that clemency be granted to 18-year-old death row inmate Paula Cooper, convicted of stabbing to death an elderly Bible teacher.
A statement issued Saturday by Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro said: ″The Holy See and the Holy Father, through confidential channels, have already made known their point of view in favor of obtaining pardon for Paula Cooper, stressing the numan and humanitarian aspects of the case.″
Navarro would not elaborate on the nature of the ″confidential channels.″
The announcement followed reports earlier in the week that the pontiff might have interceded on Miss Cooper’s behalf either during his meeting with Vice President George Bush in Detroit or through the Indianapolis archbishop, Monsignor Edward O’Meara.
″Now, when they contacted the governor, I don’t know,″ said Monica Foster, Miss Cooper’s lawyer.
Dollyne Pettingill, Gov. Robert D. Orr’s press secretary, said the governor had not received a letter or direct communication from the pope. Orr was attending his mother-in-law’s funeral in Oregon and was not available for comment.
She said Orr planned to let the appeals process run its course.
″I express my appreciation to the pope for his concern for humanity, but until the judicial system has completed its work and the (state) Supreme Court has taken action in the matter, it would be inappropriate for me to intercede,″ Orr said in a prepared statement.
Miss Cooper was sentenced to death last July for the 1985 stabbing death of Ruth Pelke during a robbery at the 78-year-old Bible teacher’s Gary home.
No execution date has been set.
Ms. Foster said last week the case probably would be before the Indiana Supreme Court by the end of the year.
She said Saturday she was pleased the pope had decided to use his influence to help Miss Cooper.
″The pope’s intervention will cause people to stop and see that we’re executing children in this country, and I think that’s a positive thing,″ Ms. Foster said.
A letter from Miss Cooper was handed to the pope’s press secretary during his 10-day visit to the United States earlier this month.
In that letter, Miss Cooper, who is not Catholic, told the pope she wanted to live and asked him to help her, even ″if it’s nothing but praying for me.″
She told the pope she had received letters from many Italians who oppose the death penalty and have collected more than 1 million signatures urging clemency for her.
In April, Orr signed into law a measure that will increase from 10 to 16 the minimum age at which a person can commit a murder and qualify for the death penalty. The law took effect Sept. 1. Miss Cooper was 15 when she killed the woman.
Before the measure became law, Indiana’s minimum age for a death penalty defendant was the lowest in the nation among the 41 states that have a specified age.
Indiana has put to death 74 people since 1897. The youngest was an 18-year- old executed in June 1939 for a murder commited when he was 16, according to Department of Correction records.
Since Indiana reinstituted the death penalty in the 1970s, two men have been executed, both after waiving their appeals.