LoveReading Says
Paula Cooper was only 15 years old and a tenth grader at Lew Walland High School in Gary, Indiana, in 1985, when she and two of her friends brutally killed local Bible teacher Ruth Pelke. Cooper received the death penalty, making her the first female to receive the sentence in Indiana, and at the time was the youngest person on Death Row in the U.S.
After her sentencing, Ruth Pelke’s grandson, Bill, was at work at Bethlehem Steel, sitting in his crane high above the molten metal when he had an epiphany: he should forgive Cooper because he was certain that his grandmother would have done the same. Some of his family did not agree with his change of heart.
Seventy Times Seven: A True Story of Murder and Mercy, Alex Mar looks not only at the details of Cooper’s trial, imprisonment and appeals, but the larger questions around using the death penalty as punishment, particularly for juveniles. The title comes from the gospel of Matthew in the Bible, when Jesus tells Peter that he needs to forgive, “seventy times seven” times.
The book, meticulously researched, takes the reader to the streets of struggling Gary, Indiana courthouses, the steel mills of Indiana, the Vatican, the U.S. Supreme Court and the women’s prisons that Cooper called home. The research extends to photos of Cooper, Pelske and many others affiliated with the case, making it all the more poignant.
Cooper’s sad story is a prism to view the difficulties in meting out justice and punishment, which often are not one and the same, and demonstrates the meaning of forgiveness. Mar has done a superb job in bringing this tragic case to life.
Maureen Stapleton
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Seventy Times Seven Synopsis
"Alex Mar's bold yet sensitive account of one of America's youngest death row inmates-and the people whose lives she forever changed-is intimately reported, deeply moving, and unforgettable." -Robert Kolker, New York Times bestselling author of Hidden Valley Road
"An absorbing work of social history and a story about the mystery and miracle of forgiveness. This is a book of awesome scope, and it deserves to be read with attention." -Hilary Mantel, Booker Prize-winning author of the Wolf Hall trilogy
A masterful, revelatory work of literary non-fiction about a teenage girl's shocking crime-and its extraordinary aftermath
On a spring afternoon in 1985 in Gary, Indiana, a fifteen-year-old girl kills an elderly woman in a violent home invasion. In a city with a history of racial tensions and white flight, the girl, Paula Cooper, is Black, and her victim, Ruth Pelke, is white and a beloved Bible teacher. The press swoops in.
When Paula is sentenced to death, no one decries the impending execution of a tenth grader. But the tide begins to shift when the victim's grandson Bill forgives the girl, against the wishes of his family, and campaigns to spare her life. This tragedy in a midwestern steel town soon reverberates across the United States and around the world-reaching as far away as the Vatican-as newspapers cover the story on their front pages and millions sign petitions in support of Paula.
As Paula waits on death row, her fate sparks a debate that not only animates legal circles but raises vital questions about the value of human life: What are we demanding when we call for justice? Is forgiveness an act of desperation or of profound bravery? As Bill and Paula's friendship deepens, and as Bill discovers others who have chosen to forgive after terrible violence, their story asks us to consider what radical acts of empathy we might be capable of.
In Seventy Times Seven, Alex Mar weaves an unforgettable narrative of an act of violence and its aftermath. This is a story about the will to live-to survive, to grow, to change-and about what we are willing to accept as justice. Tirelessly researched and told with intimacy and precision, this book brings a haunting chapter in the history of our criminal justice system to astonishing life.
About This Edition
ISBN: |
9780525522157 |
Publication date: |
28th March 2023 |
Author: |
Alex Mar |
Publisher: |
The Penguin Press an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group |
Format: |
Hardback |
Pagination: |
368 pages |
Primary Genre |
Biographies & Autobiographies
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Other Genres: |
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Recommendations: |
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