Editorial: For Keith Cooper, a measure of justice, finally
It would be easy to look at the $7.5 million settlement announced last week by Keith Cooper as a measure of justice — finally — for the man wrongfully convicted of an armed robbery in Elkhart.
But it came only after injustice that continued after he was released from prison.
Cooper will receive $7.5 million in a settlement agreement with the city of Elkhart. That's the largest paid to a plaintiff in a wrongful conviction lawsuit in Indiana, and marks the end of a shameful legal saga.
More: Wrongfully convicted Keith Cooper wins record $7.5 million in settlement from Elkhart
Last week, Cooper, now a Chicago resident, referred to the "long uphill battle" he'd fought. "I've been waiting 14 years for this day and now it's here."
Cooper's wait included a nearly decade-long quest for a gubernatorial pardon. Despite a unanimous recommendation from the Indiana Parole Board and the former deputy prosecutor who helped send him to prison, then-Gov. Mike Pence refused to act. Instead, Pence's general counsel advised Cooper to first exhaust all of his legal options before requesting a pardon. Given the years that had been taken from him by a broken system, it is unthinkable that he was asked to sit tight and wait for that same system to get things right.
He finally received a pardon in 2017 from Gov. Eric Holcomb that expunged his record and made him the first Indiana man to receive a gubernatorial pardon on actual innocence.
Last year, waiting for the legal system to give him compensation for years lost, Cooper expressed fear that he would be dead by the time his lawsuit was resolved. His story serves as a reminder that the trauma doesn't end when the innocent are freed from prison. It also provides a stark example of a system — and of the people within that system — that all too often refuses to acknowledge the devastation from the wrongs it perpetuates.
The settlement money won't erase that trauma or give him back time lost, but Cooper said "it helps build a better tomorrow for me and my family."
The city released a statement apologizing for its handling of Cooper's case, and noted that the Elkhart Police Department had set on a "path of accountability in the hopes that this kind of case will never happen again."
City officials can put action behind that long overdue apology by heeding the call, made by an attorney representing Cooper, to bring in a special prosecutor to review every case investigated by the officers named in Cooper's lawsuit. That would be a step toward the accountability that has been missing throughout Keith Cooper's ordeal.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Wrongfully convicted Keith Cooper waited a long time for 'justice.'
