Texas Governor Expected To Sign Petition Pardoning Innocent Man

The Innocence Project of Texas filed a petition this week with the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles for a posthumous pardon of Timothy Cole, 39, who died in prison in 1999 for a rape he did not commit.

In 2008, DNA evidence cleared Cole of the 1985 rape of Michele Mallin in Lubbock County, Texas. The test implicated convicted rapist Jerry Wayne Johnson, who confessed in letters to court officials dating back to 1995 but for unexplained reasons law enforcement officials failed to pursue the lead.

Johnson also mailed a letter in 2007 to Cole's home, confessing to Mallin's rape. Cole's mother read the letter and began working with the Innocence Project of Texas to clear her son's name. Ironically, prosecutors cannot prosecute Johnson for Mallin's rape because the statue of limitations expired.

Cole and Mallin were Texas Tech students in Lubbock when a series of rapes occurred on campus. A Lubbock undercover cop, posing as a Texas Tech coed targeted Cole but there was not any clear reason why he became the rape investigation's subject. Cole's family has since filed a federal lawsuit against a Texas Tech police officer and four Lubbock police officers, including the undercover cop.

Mallin's court testimony sent Cole to prison for 25 years, but he maintained his innocence until his death from asthma complications. Mallin now supports the Innocence Project of Texas' petition for Cole's pardon. Lubbock Police Chief Dale Horton said Cole is innocent and supports the pardon application.

If the board approves the application, Texas Gov. Rick Perry said he would pardon Cole, making Cole the first person in Texas to receive a posthumous pardon based on DNA evidence, according to the Texas Innocence Project. 

Initially, Perry refused to sign a posthumous pardon, believing he could not legally do so. In January, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott ruled Perry could pardon Cole.

Last year, Perry signed the Timothy Cole Act, increasing financial compensation. The law, scheduled to take effect Sept. 1, increases the lump-sum payment to wrongfully convicted exonerees to $80,000 annually for every year they spent in prison, according to the Innocence Project of Texas, Lubbock, Texas-based organization that works with the wrongfully convicted.