By Valerie Christopher
Enquirer contributor

SYCAMORE TOWNSHIP - On Election Day, 935 Moeller High School students sat in the gymnasium mentally casting their own votes on a speaker who was against capital punishment.

Bill Pelke, co-founder and president of the Indiana-based organization Journey of Hope, spoke candidly about how he has come "to love those who hate you."

Mr. Pelke told how his 78-year-old grandmother, Ruth, was murdered in Gary, Ind., May 14, 1985, by four girls who had come for Bible lessons.

A year later, one of the teens, Paula Cooper, was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. She was 15 at the time of the murder and, at 16, became the youngest female on death row.

Mr. Pelke, who originally supported Miss Cooper's death sentence, began corresponding with the teen. He forgave her and began working to overturn her sentence.

By 1989, 2 million petitions had been signed to overturn the death sentence before she was taken off death row.