America's youngest death row inmate freed after 30 years commits suicide after finding life too tough beyond the prison walls

 Paula Cooper found dead of self-inflicted gunshot wound in Indianapolis

Sentenced to death in 1986 at 16 after confessing to stabbing 78-year-old

Enraged human rights activists and Pope John Paul II made clemency plea

Cooper's death sentence was commuted to prison term by Supreme Court 

She was released about two years ago after spending 28 years behind bars

Indianapolis police say a woman who was once the nation's youngest death row inmate left a suicide note that described her struggle to survive outside the prison walls that were her home for nearly 30 years.

Lt. Richard Riddle said Paula Cooper left a note indicating her intentions before fatally shooting herself on Tuesday.

'Based upon the evidence at the scene and the fact that there was a note left to indicate the intent of Ms. Cooper, we believe this to be a suicide, and it's being investigated as a suicide,' he said.

Police told The (Munster) Times the 45-year-old woman's body was found by a tree.

The newspaper reported that authorities discovered a handgun in Cooper's lap.

Cooper's vehicle had been in a handicapped parking spot not far away.

Cooper's death sentence had been commuted to a 60-year prison term because of a US Supreme Court ruling and she was released about two years ago.

Cooper was sentenced to death in 1986 at age 16 after confessing to her role in the murder of a 78-year-old Gary Bible studies teacher the year before. 

Cooper admitted stabbing 78-year-old Ruth Pelke 33 times with a 12-inch butcher knife in a robbery that netted four youths $10 and an old car. 

Cooper was 15 at the time the crime was committed. 

Her death sentence enraged human rights activists in the U.S. and Europe and drew a plea for clemency from Pope John Paul II. 

In 1988, a priest delivered a petition to Indianapolis with more than 2 million signatures protesting Cooper's sentence.

Two years after Cooper was sentenced, the US Supreme Court ruled in an unrelated case that those under 16 at the time of an offense couldn't be sentenced to death.

Cooper admitted stabbing 78-year-old Ruth Pelke 33 times with a 12-inch butcher knife in 1985

The court said such sentences were cruel and unusual punishment and thus unconstitutional.

Indiana lawmakers later passed a law raising the minimum age limit for execution from ten years to 16, and in 1988, the state's high court set aside Cooper's death sentence and ordered her to serve 60 years in prison.

Cooper's sentence was reduced due to her behavior in prison, where she earned a bachelor's degree. 

She was on June 17, 2013, after spending 28 years behind bars.

The former inmate told the Indianapolis Star in a 2004 interview that she feels remorse for the killings.

'Everybody has a responsibility to do right or wrong, and if you do wrong, you should be punished,' she said. 

'Rehabilitation comes from you. If you're not ready to be rehabilitated, you won't be.'

Pelke's grandson, Bill Pelke, who organized opposition to the death penalty after his grandmother's killing, said he was devastated to learn of Cooper's death.

He said he worked to help Cooper after realizing that's what his grandmother would have wanted.

'My grandmother would have been appalled she was on death row and that there was so much hate and anger and desire for her to die. I was convinced my grandmother would have had love and compassion for Paula and her family,' he said 

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