Indiana Gov. Mike Pence's nomination as Republican vice-presidential candidate could have an unintended consequence: further delay in correcting a grave injustice. Keith Cooper, 49, has been awaiting Pence's decision on a pardon that would restore Cooper's good name after he was convicted of a 1996 armed robbery he didn't commit.

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence's nomination as Republican vice-presidential candidate could have an unintended consequence: further delay in correcting a grave injustice. Keith Cooper, 49, has been awaiting Pence's decision on a pardon that would restore Cooper's good name after he was convicted of a 1996 armed robbery he didn't commit.

Cooper waits even after the Indiana Parole Board unanimously recommended more than two years ago that Pence pardon him; even after the robbery victim advocated his pardon; and even after the case's original prosecutor urged his pardon.

Many governors have authority to grant pardons, clemency, or commutations. A pardon would officially absolve Cooper of his wrongful conviction. Unfortunately, some governors don't utilize this authority or do so sparingly.

The case against Cooper unraveled after his conviction. The Indianapolis Star reported that in 2004 sophisticated DNA testing on a hat the prosecution said Cooper left at the scene excluded Cooper and implicated a man imprisoned in connection with an unrelated 2002 murder. Eyewitnesses apologized for misidentifying Cooper. A jailhouse snitch, who said police put him in Cooper's cell in a failed attempt to get evidence, recanted his statement (allegedly made with police assistance) that implicated Cooper and co-defendant Christopher Parish.

The Indiana Court of Appeals overturned Parish's conviction in 2005. In 2014 he settled a wrongful conviction lawsuit for $4.9 million.

In 2006, with mounting evidence of Cooper's innocence nearly 10 years into his 40-year sentence, a judge offered him two options: official acknowledgement that his sentence was served and immediate release but with conviction intact, or tossing the conviction with risk of retrial. With his family slipping into homelessness, Cooper - who in prison earned a GED and an associate degree - chose release. Now working as a forklift operator, Cooper struggles with the felon label.

Many exhaust all avenues in our justice system to correct an injustice. A governor's pardon can be a last resort or it can replace extended court battles.

Governors have diverse records on pardoning. The Chicago Tribune reported Pence recently had 18 pardon petitions before him; he's granted three since 2013. His Republican predecessor, Gov. Mitch Daniels, pardoned more than 60 in two terms. In contrast, The Sacramento Bee reported last March that California Democrat Gov. Jerry Brown had pardoned 742 since 2011, far surpassing his three prior governors who, combined, pardoned 28.

The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette reported on Pence's reluctance, "I have a heavy bias for respect for due process of law. It's a high hurdle for me."

He's not alone. When the "Making a Murderer" documentary focused attention on the Steven Avery case, Americans learned Republican Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's stance: He doesn't even consider pardons.

"I just look at (pardons) and say that's not really why I ran for office," he told the Associated Press in 2013. "To me, the only people who are seeking pardons are people who have been guilty of a crime and I have a hard time undermining the actions of a jury and of a court."

These unacceptable excuses for inaction ignore reality.

Juries, courts, and due process have wrongly convicted many innocent people. The National Registry of Exonerations was recently reporting 1,873 exonerations since 1989. Because exonerations typically require years of investigation and advocacy, they represent only a portion of all wrongful convictions.

Governing magazine's Alan Greenblatt noted in 2015 that while pardons dropped dramatically in recent decades, changing national attitudes on criminal justice might prompt more. Greenblatt referenced political scientist P.S. Ruckman Jr., who noted that both Republican Govs. Larry Hogan of Maryland and Bruce Rauner of Illinois stressed utilizing pardons in their campaigns.

Conventional political wisdom suggests Pence's vice-presidential nomination will delay a decision on Cooper, but growing support for criminal-justice reform could provide a high-profile opportunity to address injustice.

Both Democrat and Republican presidential platforms include criminal-justice reform. Unfortunately, for those whose lives have been trampled by a miscarriage, for those who've turned themselves around in prison, and for those given draconian sentences for nonviolent offences in their youth, reforms will come too late.

Governors serious about ensuring our nation's promise of fairness and justice for all should view worthy pardon petitions as an opportunity and a responsibility to realign the scale of justice, show compassion, and restore families. Citizens should expect nothing less.

Nancy Petro is co-author with former Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro of "False Justice - Eight Myths that Convict the Innocent."