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
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 black girl kills a white elderly bible teacher in a violent home invasion. In a city with a history of racial tension 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. This story asks us to consider the nature of justice, and what radical acts of empathy we might be capable of.
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9781915798961 |
| Publication date: |
9th November 2023 |
| Author: |
Alex Mar |
| Publisher: |
Bedford Square Publishers |
| Format: |
Hardback |
| Pagination: |
1 pages |
| Primary Genre |
Biographies & Autobiographies
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| Other Genres: |
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| Recommendations: |
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Alex Mar Press Reviews
Addresses challenges of juvenile punishment with insight . . . A probing and moving book. - The Wall Street Journal
This is a harrowing and thought-provoking portrait of crime and punishment. - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Seventy Times Seven is an absorbing work of social history and a story about the mystery and miracle of forgiveness...it deserves to be read with attention. -- Hilary Mantel -
About Alex Mar
Alex Mar is the author of Witches of America, which was a New York Times Notable Book of 2015. Her work has appeared in New York Magazine, Wired, The New York Times Book Review, The Wall Street Journal and the Guardian. She also directed the feature-length documentary American Mystic.
Photo Credt: Norman Jean Roy
More About Alex Mar
