Dead inmate formally exonerated in rape
Dead inmate formally exonerated in rape
In a hearing with the family of Timothy Cole and the woman who was the rape victim, District Judge Charles Baird said mistaken eyewitness identification, questionable suspect lineups and a faulty investigation by Lubbock police led to Cole’s wrongful conviction in 1986.
Cole died in 1999 of complications from asthma while serving a 25 year sentence. He was 38.
“I’m relieved,” said Cole’s mother, Ruby Session. “I always had the feeling that one day it was going to happen.”
Cole is the first person in Texas to be posthumously exonerated after DNA testing showed he did not commit the crime that led to his conviction.
Eric Ferrero, spokesman for the national Innocence Project, said there has been at least one other posthumous DNA exoneration nationally. Frank Lee Smith died of cancer while on death row in Florida in 2000 and 11 months later was exonerated based on DNA testing.
Sitting next to Ruby Session during the hearing was Michelle Mallin, who was a Texas Tech University student when she was raped in 1985 and originally identified Cole as her attacker.
The Associated Press does not typically identify rape victims but Mallin has come forth publicly to help clear Cole’s name.
“I felt very guilty,” said Mallin, who added she has undergone counseling since learning last year that Cole was innocent.
“I’m glad it happened,” Mallin said of the exoneration. “It had to happen.”
The Innocence Project is trying to determine whether Baird’s ruling must still be upheld by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Cole would be the 37th Texas inmate exonerated by DNA testing.
Cole’s family also hopes Gov. Rick Perry will issue a pardon and will meet with him today. Perry spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger said state law doesn’t allow the governor to issue a pardon without a recommendation from the Board of Pardons and Paroles. A bill before the Legislature would change that in some circumstances.
“I have one more step,” Session said, “then it will be over.”
Cole was a military veteran and college student when he was convicted. Cole and his relatives for years claimed he was innocent, but were ignored by the judicial system until evidence from the original rape kit was tested for DNA last year. The tests cleared Cole and connected the crime to Jerry Wayne Johnson, who is serving life in prison for separate rapes.
In 1995, after the statute of limitations had expired on the Texas Tech rape, Johnson tried to confess to the crime in letters to prosecutors and judges in Lubbock County. But no one paid attention, and Cole died in prison four years later.
The Innocence Project of Texas eventually took on the case.
