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Vice President Mike Pence waves while leaving a Senate policy luncheon. Mario Tama / Getty Images

ID: 10498962

The newly-elected Governor of Indiana Eric Holcomb has pardoned a wrongfully convicted man whose petition for exoneration was delayed for more than two years by his predecessor, Vice President Mike Pence.

After serving 10 years of a 40-year prison sentence for armed robbery and attempted murder, Keith Cooper was freed when eyewitnesses recanted their testimony against him, new DNA evidence showed he wasnt at the scene of the crime, and a jailhouse informant admitted that he lied to investigators.

Five years later, Coopers pardon petition was presented to the state parole board, who found unanimously that he should be pardoned and have the two serious felony charges wiped from his record.

But after the parole board delivered its recommendation on Cooper to the governors office, Pence sat on the pardon for more than two years claiming that Cooper had not exhausted all other judicial remedies with the courts.

To our knowledge, Mr. Cooper has not filed a petition with the courts in Elkhart County to determine whether post-conviction relief is available, Gov. Pences general counsel Mark Ahearn wrote in a letter to Cooper in September.

After Pence joined the Trump campaign as his VP candidate he resigned the governorship, leaving his successor to deal with the Cooper case. While they waited for further action from the Governors office, Coopers attorney filed a petition this fall for a new trial. And despite being freed from prison, the two felonies remained on Coopers record.

Im tired of people judging me by that conviction. That [Department of Correction] number. Thats not who I am, Cooper told BuzzFeed News in August. Man, I know that better than my own Social Security number.

Keith Cooper Elliot Slosar

ID: 10498975

In August 2016, BuzzFeed News reported about Coopers wrongful conviction in the 1996 robbery where one man was shot.

Twelve years after the incident, in 2008, shooting victim Michael Kershner and his mother, Nona Canell, gave videotaped statements claiming that they misidentified Cooper.

They said that they believed based on the new evidence that the person whose DNA was found on a hat left behind at the crime scene was the shooter. Canell said that during the investigation she requested numerous times to see a lineup of suspects, but the lead detective on the case, an Elkhart Police detective, assured her that they had the right guy in Cooper.

At an October debate, then-candidate for Governor Eric Holcomb said he understood Pences thinking in letting the judicial process play out.

However, Holcomb, who served as Pences lieutenant governor, appeared to depart from Pences stance that this was a matter for the court to decide, saying that if elected he would like to meet with Cooper and review the facts of the case.

I would look forward to quickly exonerating, quickly pardoning, swiftly if the facts bear that out, Holcomb said.

On Thursday, Holcomb made good on that statement and announced on Twitter that he was pardoning Cooper.

The pardoning makes Cooper the first person in the states history granted clemency based on a finding of innocence.

Read more from the original source:
Indiana's New Governor Pardoned A Wrongfully Convicted Man After Mike Pence Delayed It For Years - BuzzFeed News