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Alex Mars bold yet sensitive account of one of Americas youngest death row inmatesand the people whose lives she forever changedis intimately reported deeply moving and unforgettable Robert Kolker New York Times bestselling author of Hidden Valley Road

A masterful revelatory work of literary nonfiction about a teenage girls shocking crimeand its extraordinary aftermath

On a spring afternoon in 1985 in Gary Indiana a fifteenyearold girl kills an elderly woman in a violent home invasion In a city with a history of racial tensions and white flight the girl Paula Cooper is Black and her victim Ruth Pelke is white and a beloved Bible teacher 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 victims 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 worldreaching as far away as the Vaticanas 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 What are we demanding when we call for justice Is forgiveness an act of desperation or of profound bravery As Bill and Paulas friendship deepens and as Bill discovers others who have chosen to forgive after terrible violence their story asks us to consider what radical acts of empathy we might be capable of

In Seventy Times Seven Alex Mar weaves an unforgettable narrative of an act of violence and its aftermath This is a story about the will to liveto survive to grow to changeand about what we are willing to accept as justice Tirelessly researched and told with intimacy and precision this book brings a haunting chapter in the history of our criminal justice system to astonishing life