Wrongfully convicted man Pence wouldn't pardon calls VP 'racist' for praising Arpaio

Vice President Mike Pence praised Joe Arpaio, a controversial former Arizona sheriff who President Donald Trump pardoned last year for a criminal contempt conviction, as a strong supporter of the "rule of law" during a Tuesday event in Tempe.

The compliment quickly drew criticism even from some conservatives.

Now, Pence's comments also are drawing fire from another source: A man wrongfully convicted in Indiana who Pence wouldn't pardon as governor.

Keith Cooper, who was convicted nearly 20 years ago of an armed robbery he did not commit, said Wednesday that Pence's support for Arpaio shows a double standard.

"He's a racist," Cooper said.

"You’ll praise a man who was guilty and then say, 'OK, this man needs to be pardoned, he’s got more to bring back to society. But me as a black man, I don’t have nothing to offer, so taking my life away, putting me in that cage, I guess that’s justified, even though I proved myself to be innocent," Cooper said.

Pence's office did not respond to a request for comment, noting that it sees no similarity between the two situations.

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But Cooper said the vice president's public expression of support for Arpaio, a man who proudly flouted the law, was deeply upsetting given the cold shoulder he got from Pence.

"It just shows how Mike Pence really is," he said. "Pence is a hypocrite."

Cooper, a former Elkhart resident who now lives in Country Club Hills, Ill., was wrongfully convicted in 1997 and spent eight years in prison before prosecutors set him free amid growing evidence that he was innocent.

DNA evidence later pointed to another suspect, eyewitnesses recanted their testimony and the deputy prosecutor who handled the case wrote a letter to Pence arguing that "justice demands that Mr. Cooper be pardoned."

Pence, however, declined to grant Cooper a pardon during his four years as Indiana's governor, despite a recommendation from the state's parole board. Pence's successor, Republican Eric Holcomb, pardoned Cooper last year, just one month after taking office.

Cooper's stinging rebuke is just the latest criticism of Pence's praise of Arpaio at the Tempe event, which was intended to drum up support for Republican tax cuts that Trump signed into law in December.

During the event, Pence noted Arpaio's attendance and called him "a great friend of this president, a tireless champion of strong borders and the rule of law, who spent a lifetime in law enforcement," according to video from NBC News.

The comments were quickly panned by critics, including conservatives who see Arpaio as someone willing to break the law for the sake of publicity. They fear his run for U.S. Senate in Arizona's competitive GOP primary could sabotage Republican efforts to maintain the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Jeff Flake.

"The decline of Mike Pence," tweeted David French, a senior fellow at the National Review Institute who has defended Pence during other controversies.

"Depressing," tweeted Brit Hume, a senior political analyst for Fox News Channel.

Arpaio, who has been branded "America's Toughest Sheriff," gained a national following for housing inmates in a Tent City in Maricopa County and for his efforts to crack down on illegal immigration. He was a big supporter of Trump's candidacy in 2016 and has been a leading "birther" figure, sending detectives to investigate President Barack Obama's birth certificate.

But his crude tactics and efforts to investigate political enemies made him a controversial figure and last year he was convicted of criminal contempt last year for "flagrant disregard" of a federal court order to stop racially profiling Hispanic people during his department's signature immigration patrols. President Trump pardoned him in August before Arpaio could be sentenced on the conviction.

Arpaio was voted out of office in November but is now seeking to revive his political career in Arizona's GOP Senate primary, where he is facing Rep. Martha McSally, a retired Air Force fighter pilot, and Kelli Ward, a former family physician and state senator who challenged Sen. John McCain in the 2016 Senate primary.

Pence's comments supporting Arpaio could help bolster his chances in that race, a cause of consternation for some Republicans who worry that an Arpaio nomination would doom the party's chances of holding onto the seat in November against presumptive Democratic nominee, Rep. Kyrsten Sinema.

Pence's team, however, has downplayed any notion that he was endorsing Arpaio's candidacy. The vice president acknowledged the presence of several other elected officials at the event, including Arpaio's primary opponent McSally who he praised as a conservative leader in the House.

Arpaio's campaign did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment for this story.

USA Today and the Arizona Republic contributed to this story.

Call IndyStar reporter Tony Cook at (317) 444-6081. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.