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Death Sentence: The Murder of Ruth Pelke & the Punishment of Paula Cooper

Published: March 25, 2024, 5:48 p.m.

On a weekday afternoon in 1985 in Gary, Indiana, fifteen-year-old Paula Cooper stabbed 78-year-old Ruth Pelke to death. In a city with a history of racism, Ruth was a white, beloved bible teacher who refused to move out of her overwhelmingly black neighborhood. When Paula and her friends showed up at Ruth\u2019s door that day [\u2026]