Council approves Tim Cole memorial

The original story can be found HERE along w/ the Innocent Project description.

6-7-2012 Texas:

A bronze relief sculpture and granite marker will pay permanent tribute to Timothy Cole, just blocks away from the Texas Tech bar district where he was arrested for a crime he didn’t commit.

And it was his brother, Cory Sessions, who helped sway the Lubbock City Council to support the memorial to his brother who died imprisoned in 1999 after being wrongfully convicted in the 1986 sexual assault of a fellow Texas Tech student.

“Tim may be remembered for things that happened after his life, but we remember him for what happened during his life,” Sessions said Thursday morning at the council meeting. “The most important part of his headstone is the dash, and that’s what we remember Tim by.”

The council approved a renewed proposal by Councilman Todd Klein to honor Cole with a memorial on city property at 19th Street and University Avenue.

Klein designed the proposal with the help of attorney Kevin Glasheen, who has represented several wrongfully-convicted people for compensation, including the Cole family.

Glasheen said his firm would pay the estimated $25,000 for the monument — a granite marker with a bronze relief sculpture of Cole and text similar or identical to the text on a state historical marker located near Cole’s Fort Worth grave site.

He praised Cole for his demonstration of character throughout his trial and imprisonment, recalling how Cole would not admit guilt even if it meant he had a chance for parole.

“That kind of character and integrity is worthy of honor,” Glasheen said.

Mayor Glen Robertson said he went into the meeting with an open mind and unsure how he would vote on what he called and “emotional issue.”

He praised Sessions for helping him with the choice.

“Your words swayed me to vote in favor of this today,” Robertson said.
Sessions told the council his family would appreciate anything Lubbock could do to remember his brother.

But he said he did not want the decision to become a heated debate.

“Tim was not a divisive person, he was a person of unification,” he said.

The council’s decision was 5-1, with Councilman Victor Hernandez voicing the only no vote.

He initially spoke in favor of the monument, but later said he changed his mind following an addition at the request of Councilman Paul R. Beane.

During discussion, Beane said he would support the motion only if the city land was designated as a park.

He said he wanted the park designation “so folks could not camp there or quote ‘occupy’ this area” to maintain the memorial’s dignity.

As it was, the city land did not fall under ordinances banning camping and for months was home to dozens of campers with the Occupy Lubbock protest.

Hernandez said he was concerned changing the land’s designation would remove a venue for Lubbockites to express their First Amendment rights.

“I couldn’t see replacing one injustice for another,” Hernandez said.

Sessions said he was pleased with the council’s decision.

“It is a constant reminder that if you don’t remember the past, we’re doomed to repeat it,” he said.

Jerry Johnson, who continues to serve time on unrelated sexual assault charges in Lubbock from around the same time, confessed to the crime in 2007.

On April 7, 2009, an Austin court formally pardoned Cole. It would be almost a year before Gov. Rick Perry signed the paper, making Cole the state’s first posthumous pardon.

Klein had proposed a memorial fountain be place in Mackenzie Park, but tabled the proposal after other council members voiced concerns over erecting a fountain during a drought and over the cost of the memorial.

The official name of the park and memorial will be determined at a later council meeting. ..Source.. by Adam D. Young