Why is Paula Cooper being freed?
I read this entire article about the release of murderer Paula Cooper without learning a word about why it’s happening so soon.
I understand why her death penalty was set aside, which according to the article happened in 1988 (Wiki says it was in 1989 due to a SCOTUS case that barred execution of criminals 16 and under). I actually don’t have any difficulty with that part of the decision.
Cooper, who is black, was 16 in 1985 when she stabbed 78-year-old Bible school teacher Ruth Pelke 33 times in the course of a robbery committed with 3 other girls (net take was $10). Her death penalty sentence was changed to 60 years because of her age at the time of the murder (again, Wiki says it was changed to life, which makes much more sense to me, but Wiki also contradicts itself by saying later that her new sentence was 60 years).
So, why is Cooper being released now? When last I checked, 1985 to 2013 was only 28 years. Well, Indiana law says that offenders get a day taken off their time for each day of good behavior. Now, that’s what I call an incentive. But it means that most criminals will only be serving half their sentences, which seems unconscionable to me.
Who knew murder came so cheap in Indiana?
And yes, Cooper has had a very difficult life. That’s too bad, and very sad. But it really should have no bearing on these issues.
And another bad thing is that we’re so much harsher than many other countries. I support Truth in Sentencing laws. Is 28 years enough? Perhaps, but it certainly isn’t the same as 60 years.
According to the Indystar site she was not always a model prisoner:
Cooper made efforts in prison to turn around her life, but also had numerous scrapes with authorities.
Her conduct seemed to improve with time after a low point in 1995, when she was sentenced to three years of solitary confinement for assaulting a prison guard. In all, DOC records show she was cited 23 times for rules violations, including 10 low-level violations – unruly conduct, being in an unauthorized area and sexual contact – since 2005.
“I was very bitter and angry, so I was in a lot of trouble. I hated it. But I learned to adapt eventually,” she said in the 2004 interview. “I decided for myself it was time to really sit down and buckle down and get it, because it wasn’t gonna always be there.”
So here good behavior was from 2004-and yet she walks. She’ll be back in the system before long and justice will not have been served.
From this site:
http://www.indystar.com/article/20130615/NEWS02/306150010/Paula-Cooper-once-teen-Indiana-s-Death-Row-released-from-prison-Monday
A common response to women committing crimes is to find reasons to forgive punishment. Women look for reasons they are not to blame. For example, “I was a victim of abuse.” Many men enable this blame-shifting too. Who knows why. The net effect is that men are expected to take blame and women are not. I think this double standard becomes unworkable when women assume power and demand equal rights and outcomes. If you wonder why things are not working well in this country (family, marriage, economy), I think a lot of it can be attributed to the one-sided nature of this dynamic.
She’ll be back in the system before long and justice will not have been served.
Very likely, yes. Hopefully she won’t actually kill anyone this time around.
Hey, maybe she got four days off for each day of good behavior, then.
Here’s some further information about the Cooper case. From a quick look at it, I would say I haven’t seen anything there that would indicate deep character change, and much to indicate that Cooper is a person who might be called a sociopath. Very disturbing.
I’m a little reluctant to comment on this, but if I could provide a little context to your question as to why Paula Cooper is walking, let me start by saying this: I’m a mentor for long-term violent offenders within four years of being released back into Indiana society. This is something I’ve done for a good number of years now, and several of my guys were on Death Row in Terra Haute prior to receiving new trials/sentences.
Every one of my mentees has done at least 20 years; my longest sentenced mentee to date has been 27 years. It is my understanding that when a violent offender is sentenced to 40 years or even 60 years, they are automatically sentenced to serve at least half of that. Such a sentence is referred to as a “40-do-20” or “60-do-30” in legal vernacular.
The one sentenced can then receive time cuts off that shorter sentence by successfully completing various programs addressing such issues as character development, relationship skills, substance abuse, victim impact, religious/cultural/racial diversity, conflict management and criminal thinking patterns. The point is to satisfactorily demonstrate he (or she) is determined to make a new start.
There are very few inmates in IDOC currently serving a full life sentence. That is rarely meted out. It’s expensive and accomplishes little.
gcw: How do we know how much actually serving a life sentence would accomplish? Not only would it keep certain psychopathic offenders who are likely to kill again off the streets, but it might even serve as more of a deterrent to others if it is known that murderers don’t get out after just twenty-odd years.
As for expense, how many life-sentence murderers are there in the state of Indiana? There might be fewer if potential murderers thought they might actually serve life.
Good questions, to be sure. I think you just qualified this situation, though, by referring to “psychopathic offenders.” None of the men I work with would ever by any stretch be recognized by the State of Indiana as such.
A sociopath is a person who is unable to tell right from wrong and has extreme antisocial tendencies. A psychopath is a person who is unstable, insane, abnormally violent or unable to maintain normal social behavior. There is a profound difference between the two, and I don’t think they were ever intended to be used interchangeably.
According to IDOC, only four people are currently serving life without parole sentences, mostly for crimes committed decades ago. Currently it costs an average of $54.28 per day to keep an adult inmate incarcerated in the State of Indiana. Do with that what you will.
gcw:
A prior thread discussed average time served for murder in the US. Perhaps you could provide some solid data on this, at least for Indiana. Please give your best estimates for the following penalties over the last 20 years or so (and/or point to reliable references, if you know them):
1) Average time served for first degree murder.
2) Average time served for second degree murder.
3) Average time served for voluntary manslaughter.
Thank-you.
“Who knew murder came so cheap in Indiana?”
It’s not just Indiana. It varies by state and there are a plethora of factors to be considered; 1st, 2nd, or 3rd degree? Voluntary or involuntary manslaughter? Clear indications of Cruelty? Depraved indifference? Prior felonies? Were prior felonies committed as a juvenile or as an adult? Etc, etc.
The result of all these factors is that “The convicted murderer in the United States serves, on average, just six years in prison.”– (Atlantic Monthly; Sept. ’97, “A Grief Like No Other”)
The cheap penalty imposed for murder is a direct result of our society’s refusal to assign a proportional consequence to the crime. It’s the exact opposite of cruel and unusual punishment.
A murderer by definition has unilaterally abrogated their victim’s ‘right to life’ and in doing so have in return forfeited their own right to life.
From a societal perspective, the death penalty is not retributive, it is consequential. Those who assert that the societal purpose of the death penalty is retribution are mistakenly confusing the personal motivations of those close to the victim with society’s consideration of the common good.
A society that refuses to recognize the straightforward logic of consequence, compounds the injustice of murder.
gcw: no, that is not the definition of either a psychopath or sociopath. Take a look. If it’s the definition you (or the state of Indiana) are using, you are mistaken.
And the terms are often used interchangeably, although some see subtle differences.
A few tips: neither definition involves any inability to tell right from wrong, nor are psychopaths or sociopaths insane. Their inabilities and deficits have to do with empathy, taking responsibility, and behavior (which in psychopaths is not always criminal by any means).
But one of the main characteristics of psychopaths/sociopaths is that they can talk a good line about learning the error of their ways, but they do not actually learn. They are good con artists and can fool people, although they can also manage to temporarily check their antisocial behavior if they see the benefits. They know how to mimic what people want to hear.
Read Cleckley’s book if you want to learn more.
Geoffrey Britain:
We had this discussion a while ago in the comments section of another post, about whether those Atlantic statistics are correct. I maintain they are not, although I agree the situation is such that murderers do not serve enough time.
And by “murderers” in this post I mean the type of murderer Cooper was, not lesser degrees and involuntary manslaughter and the like (the degrees and definitions very from state to state).
I refer you and others to my comment in the earlier thread on the subject of how many states have truth in sentencing laws, and what the real statistics might be (very hard to determine, by the way).
Gary: A friend of mine is an attorney downtown and sent me some stuff to complement all the reams of information I get from IDOC. I’ve put a few things together here to provide some clarity. Hope it helps.
Under the State of Indiana Murder/Manslaughter Law, a person commits murder in the first degree — and typically receives a sentence of 40-65 years — when the person commits murder under any of the following circumstances:
1. The person willfully, deliberately, and with premeditation kills another person.
2. The person kills another person while participating in a forcible felony.
3. The person kills another person while escaping or attempting to escape from lawful custody.
4. The person intentionally kills a peace officer, correctional officer, public employee, or hostage while the person is imprisoned in a correctional institution under the jurisdiction of the Indiana department of corrections, or in a city or county jail.
5. The person kills a child while committing child endangerment under section 726.6, subsection 1, paragraph “b”, or while committing assault under section 708.1 upon the child, and the death occurs under circumstances manifesting an extreme indifference to human life.
6. The person kills another person while participating in an act of terrorism as defined in section 708A.1.
A person commits murder in the second degree when the incident is defined as:
1. an intentional killing that is not premeditated or planned, nor committed in a reasonable “heat of passion”; or
2. a killing caused by dangerous conduct and the offender’s obvious lack of concern for human life.
There is no fixed sentence for second degree murder, but should I hazard a guess, I would a 20-do-10 is about average. At least that’s been my experience with IDOC to date. With time off for all the usual stuff, of course. Wish I could be more help on that, but there’s not much to work with.
A person commits voluntary manslaughter when that person causes the death of another person, under circumstances which would otherwise be murder, if the person causing the death acts solely as the result of sudden, violent, and irresistible passion resulting from serious provocation sufficient to excite such passion in a person and there is not an interval between the provocation and the killing in which a person of ordinary reason and temperament would regain control and suppress the impulse to kill.
Voluntary manslaughter is an included offense under an indictment for murder in the first or second degree which can carry a sentence in Indiana of up to 10 years, but it is always pled out in such cases, so I’ll jump right to Involuntary Manslaughter.
1. A person commits a class “D” felony of Involuntary Manslaughter when the person unintentionally causes the death of another person by the commission of a public offense other than a forcible felony or escape.
2. A person commits an aggravated misdemeanor of Involuntary Manslaughter when the person unintentionally causes the death of another person by the commission of an act in a manner likely to cause death or serious injury.
For the purpose of our time together today, involuntary manslaughter as defined as an included offense under an indictment for murder in the first or second degree or voluntary manslaughter.
Hope this helps, Gary.
gcw:
I appreciate the information, but what I’m after is the bottom line: after all is said and done, how much time do murderers actually serve?
You mentioned “20-do-10” for second degree murder. Assuming good behavior, participation in various programs like you described, etc. what does that 10 actually come down to, 5-7 years?
Re first degree murder, you mentioned a typical “sentence of 40-65 years.” Does this mean 40-do-20 to 65-do-32.5? If so, the typical sentence is really 20-32.5 years. And then with good behavior, etc what are we down to in real time served, 10-20 years or so?
Thanks.
Gary: I should have explained a little more fully. When a sentence is handed down, such as 60-do-30, what happens is a mandatory 30 with time off incentives. Once the inmate is released on completion of initial sentence, he receives two years probation or parole. Should anything major happen during that time — we’re not talking parking tickets here, to be sure — the individual still has the other half of that sentence hanging over him and will likely receive it without so much as anything more formal than a hearing.
I don’t know of anyone in the system with longer than a 60-do-30. One of my mentees got out last month after serving 27 years for M1/Manslaughter. He had actually been on Death Row and got a new trial. At that trial he received a 60-do-30, with credit for time served (He had been on Death Row for 10 years).
I would add again that it varies with each case. One of my guys got out a few weeks ago after 20 years (I’m having coffee with him at Starbucks Wednesday!) and he did 20 years of a 50-do-25 for M2/manslaughter. He got five years off for college education and other programs I mentioned in my 2:14pm letter.
The concerns for the brutally insane woman are shocking.
“What evidence of benefit is there of life-sentences?” How about it’s a pretty sure way that they don’t kill anyone else? Geez!
My unfortunate assumption is that the consideration for her is more about race these days than it is the fact she butchered someone,and yet they believe in rehabilitation.
They are consistently and effectively destroying any regard for law as law, giving all priority to feelings and expediency of the moment.
gcw:
On the one hand you tell me that “When a sentence is handed down, such as 60-do-30” that 30 years is “mandatory.” But later on you mention that a guy on death row got 60-do-30 after a retrial and then “got out last month after serving 27 years.” So evidently “60-do-30” does NOT mean a mandatory minimum of 30 years.
Likewise, you write that another man “did 20 years of a 50-do-25 for M2/manslaughter. He got five years off for college education and other programs I mentioned in my 2:14pm letter.” Again, the 25 years in the 50-do-25 is NOT mandatory.
I appreciate your efforts, but I don’t think I’m going to get the kind of hard data I’m looking for from you.
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gcw, you seem like decent person trying to do his best in a terribly difficult situation, but there was something so striking in your last post that I cannot let pass unremarked–and that is the unalloyed enthusiasm you expressed about the release of a second-degree murderer (“I’m having coffee with him at Starbucks Wednesday!”), which seems more than a bit odd to me.
Obviously I know nothing of the specifics of this case. But counterbalancing your happiness for a man set free after spending 20 years in some hellhole, there’s a dead person whose life was violently ripped from him or her more than two decades ago (and who won’t be having coffee with anyone), and a whole raft of the murder victim’s friends and family whose lives have been poisoned with the most horrific grief and trauma, all because of the actions of your guy. Who has been mentoring and assisting those folks for the last 20 years?
Evidently you feel that 20 years is sufficient punishment, but this is not so obvious to others. I sincerely hope that this guy is ready to deal with the outside world and doesn’t wind up back inside after more bloodshed, horror and ruined lives.