Nation's Once-Youngest Death Row Inmate Found Dead

Paula Cooper's sentence at age 16 enraged human rights activists and drew a plea for clemency from Pope John Paul II

Paula Cooper, who was once the nation's youngest death row inmate for her role in a brutal Gary, Indiana homicide, was found dead Tuesday from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said. 

The 45-year-old was found dead during the morning hours at a residence on Indianapolis' northwest side.

Cooper was 15 when she and three other teenage girls showed up at Ruth Pelke's house on May 14, 1985, with plans of robbing the 78-year-old Bible school teacher. Pelke let Cooper and two of the teen's companions into her Gary home after they told her they were interested in Bible lessons.

As the fourth teen waited outside as a lookout, Cooper stabbed Pelke 33 times with a butcher knife. Then she and the other girls ransacked the house. The four girls fled with Pelke's car and $10.

Cooper's three accomplices were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 25 to 60 years. But Cooper, who confessed to Pelke's slaying, was convicted of murder and sentenced to die in the electric chair. At the time -- in 1986 -- she was the youngest death row inmate in the U.S.

Her death sentence at such a young age sparked international protests and a plea for clemency from Pope John Paul II. 

Shortly after Cooper was sentenced, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that those under 16 at the time they committed an offense couldn't be sentenced to death because it counted was unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment.

Cooper was paroled in 2013.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
Contact Us