TX- Texas Posthumously Exonerates Man Who Died in Prison

9-24-2009 Texas:

On February 6, 2009, Travis County District Judge Charlie Baird did what no other Texas judge had done before – he exonerated a dead man. Timothy Brian Cole, who died of asthma due to medical neglect while incarcerated in 1999, was declared innocent of the rape charges that sent him to prison.

On March 24, 1985, Michele Mallin, a Texas Tech University student, was raped by a chain-smoking black man when she was walking to her car at night. A series of similar rapes had occurred, and there was great pressure on the police to solve the case. Cole worked several blocks from the crime scene and looked similar to a composite sketch of the suspect; he was arrested and Mallin identified him as her rapist.

Cole, who had only a misdemeanor arrest record and was not identified as the perpetrator by any of the other rape victims, steadfastly proclaimed his innocence and wept over his misfortune while sitting in jail.

Listening to Cole’s suffering was another prisoner, Jerry Wayne Johnson, a chain-smoking black man who had been arrested for, and was later convicted of, two other sex crimes. He also had a history of similar offenses.

Cole was convicted in September 1986 and sentenced to 25 years. He had declined a plea bargain that would have resulted in probation, maintaining that he was not guilty. Cole’s years in prison were not easy. Accused of rape and sent to the Coffield Unit, one of the worst facilities in the Texas Dept. of Criminal Justice, Cole suffered the scorn and abuse of other prisoners. The appeals of his criminal conviction were denied.

Johnson waited until the statute of limitations had expired, then in 1995 wrote to the Lubbock district attorney and judge who had convicted Cole, confessing to the crime. No one was interested. Cole later died in prison on December 2, 1999 due to health problems related to his asthma. He was 39 years old. What ultimately cost Cole his life was systemic medical neglect, which is all too common in the Texas prison system. [See: PLN, May 2008, p.34; June 2003, p.18; Dec. 2002, p.1].

..For the remainder of the story.. by Matt Clarke