Perry Signs Posthumous Pardon for Tim Cole

"Perry grants state's first posthumous pardon," is the title of Betsy Blaney's AP report, via the Austin American-Statesman.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Monday pardoned a man who died in prison after serving more than 13 years for a wrongful rape conviction.

Perry granted the state's first posthumous pardon to Tim Cole in Austin after receiving a recommendation from the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.

Cole was convicted of a 1985 rape of a Texas Tech University student in Lubbock. The Army veteran was cleared by DNA evidence in 2008, nine years after he died in prison of complications from asthma at age 39.

"I am so happy," Ruby Session, Cole's mother, said from her Burleson home. "I just know that Tim is up there smiling."

Perry called Session personally Monday after signing her son's pardon.

"We have a rainy, rainy day," Session said she told Perry. "And I said, 'Those are his tears of joy.'"

And:

Cole is the first Texas man to be posthumously cleared by DNA testing. The 2008 test cleared Cole and implicated convicted rapist Jerry Wayne Johnson, who confessed in several letters to court officials that date back to 1995.

Johnson cannot be prosecuted for the rape that sent Cole to prison because the statute of limitations has expired.

Last year in Austin, state district Judge Charlie Baird pronounced Cole innocent during an exoneration hearing.

Baird said mistaken witness identification, questionable suspect lineups and a faulty police investigation led to Cole's wrongful conviction.

Peggy Fikac writes, "Perry pardons exonerated convict posthumously," for the Houston Chronicle.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott in January cleared the way for Perry's action when he issued a legal opinion saying the governor had the authority to grant a posthumous pardon. Perry received the State Board of Pardons and Paroles' recommendation for a pardon Monday morning, election eve, according to a spokeswoman.

“I have been looking forward to the day I could tell Tim Cole's mother that her son's name has been cleared for a crime he did not commit,” Perry said in a statement. “The State of Texas cannot give back the time he spent in prison away from his loved ones, but today I was finally able to tell her we have cleared his name, and hope this brings a measure of peace to his family.”

Perry had met before with Cole's family and called to tell his mother, Ruby Session, of Monday's pardon, Cory Session said.

“We're religious people, and we believe he (Cole) is rejoicing in heaven with his father and grandparents,” Cory Session said.

The Legislature last year approved a measure to increase compensation for people who are wrongfully convicted. Under the law, Cole's family would be entitled to more than $1 million — $80,000 a year for each of the 13 years he was imprisoned, according to Sen. Rodney Ellis' office.

Session said his mother, however, is focused on pursuing a federal lawsuit in Lubbock in an effort to get more information about Cole's case. The compensation “is not what's on her mind,” he said.

Ellis, D-Houston, who championed Cole's case, requested the legal opinion from Abbott. Ellis said more work remains to be done to guard against similar situations, such as pushing to require every law enforcement agency in Texas to have written eyewitness identification procedures based on best practices.

In the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal it's, "Governor makes Cole pardon official," written by Elliott Blackburn.

Perry's signature came just more than 10 years after Cole's death, and almost 25 years after a Texas Tech student was kidnapped from a church parking lot across from the university campus.

Cole came to the attention of Lubbock police in 1985 as they investigated a string of attacks on young white women near the Tech campus.

He was photographed by police after he flirted with an undercover officer. The victim in one of the attacks later identified him as her attacker.

Cole professed his innocence for years, refusing to accept responsibility for the crime in order to receive parole.

He encouraged his younger brothers and sister from behind bars to pursue their own college educations, even in Lubbock, until he died from complications from an asthma attack in December 1999 at age 39.

A man convicted around the same time as Cole in similar Lubbock attacks wrote letters to Lubbock court officers confessing to Cole's crime as early as 1995.

Jerry Wayne Johnson later told The Avalanche-Journal that he had listened to Cole crying during his first night in county jail, after conviction, and had tried to track him down after the statute of limitations on the crime expired.

But his claims were not given close attention until 2007. DNA testing in 2008, requested by the Lubbock County District Attorney's office, proved Johnson had told the truth.

Earlier coverage of the tragic case of Tim Cole begins with this post.

Comments

[Account Deleted]

In April 2009 when I first read about Timothy Brian Cole, it provided the incentive to write about him. So I contacted the Innocence Project in New York that referred me to the Innocence Project of Texas. I met with Jeff Blackburn, chief counsel; Natalie Roetzel, executive director; interviewed Tim Cole's mother, Ruby, and other members of her family, including Cory Session; conducted numerous interviews; issued a multitude of open records requests; reviewed all of the original trial transcripts, along with the evidence file; various police investigative reports; and other pertinent documentation. Out of this effort, I wrote A PLEA FOR JUSTICE: The Timothy Cole Story, which is being published by Eakin Press, soon to be released about May 01. www.eakinpress.com

[Fred McKinley]

In April 2009 when I first read about Timothy Brian Cole, it provided the incentive to write about him. So I contacted the Innocence Project in New York that referred me to the Innocence Project of Texas. I met with Jeff Blackburn, chief counsel; Natalie Roetzel, executive director; interviewed Tim Cole's mother, Ruby, and other members of her family, including Cory Session; conducted numerous interviews; issued a multitude of open records requests; reviewed all of the original trial transcripts, along with the evidence file; various police investigative reports; and other pertinent documentation. Out of this effort, I wrote A PLEA FOR JUSTICE: The Timothy Cole Story, which is being published by Eakin Press, soon to be released about May 01. For more information refer to my web site www.timothybriancole.com

As a matter of additional information, I am donating one-half of the royalties of all book sales to the Innocence Project of Texas.