First posthumous DNA exoneration
DALLAS (AP) -- A state district judge is expected to formally clear a man who died in prison 13 years into a 25-year sentence for a rape he did not commit, making him the first posthumous DNA exoneration in Texas history.
State District Judge Charles Baird already indicated after a February hearing that he would exonerate Timothy Cole, who was convicted of a 1985 sexual assault of a Texas Tech University student.
Lawyers from the Innocence Project of Texas say that Baird is expected today to reveal the legal reasoning for his decision during a hearing in his Austin courtroom.
Cole died in 1999 at the age of 38 of complications from asthma.
He always maintained his innocence.
Cole, a military veteran and college student, was convicted of raping the student in Lubbock in 1985. Cole and his relatives for years claimed he was innocent, but were ignored by the judicial system until evidence from the original rape kit was tested for DNA last year.
The tests cleared Cole and connected the crime to Jerry Wayne Johnson, who is serving life in prison for separate rapes.
Texas leads the nation with 36 DNA exonerations, according to the Innocence Project.
(Copyright ©2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
