Texas pardons convict for rape he didn't commit -- 9 years after his death

[The Straight Story]

Texas pardons convict for rape he didn't commit -- 9 years after his death


FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) -- The family of a Texas man who died while imprisoned for a rape he didn't commit has been given a framed copy of the state's first posthumous pardon -- a document that finally proves his innocence.

Gov. Rick Perry granted Timothy Cole's pardon nearly three weeks ago and gave his relatives the document Friday at a Fort Worth hotel.

Perry called the occasion "solemn" but "joyful" because it restored Cole's "good name."

Cole was cleared by DNA testing in 2008, nine years after he died in prison at age 39 of asthma complications. He had been in prison more than 13 years.

The test that cleared Cole in a Texas Tech University student's rape also implicated convicted rapist Jerry Wayne Johnson.

Johnson cannot be prosecuted because the statute of limitations has expired.

http://www.news10.net/news/national/story.aspx?storyid=77667&catid=5

This is an update to an earlier story on du:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4288863

[snot]

1. Perfect post title, among other things. thx.

[struggle4progress]

2. The old familiar southern justice: "His skin's a different color than mine,

so he looks guilty to me."

[HopeHoops]

3. Well now all of Texas can feel redeemed.

:sarcasm:

[spanone]

4. let's hope st. peter delivers gov. perry's message to mr cole

and george bu$h* never executed an innocent man.....sure junior, sure

[JHB]

5. One guess as to who was governor of Texas when he was falsely convicted?

It should only take one guess, because tha article has enough information to do the math.