DALLAS (AP) - Attorneys for a man who died in prison after wrongly being convicted of rape have filed for a pardon with the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.
Tim Cole's pardon application was mailed to Austin on Monday by the Innocence Project of Texas.
Cole, an Army veteran, died behind bars in 1999 at age 39. He was convicted of a 1985 rape of a Texas Tech student in Lubbock. A 2008 DNA test cleared Cole and implicated convicted rapist Jerry Wayne Johnson, who confessed in letters to court officials beginning in 1995.
Cole's family has been asking for a pardon from Gov. Rick Perry, who was sympathetic but maintained he legally could not issue a posthumous pardon.
Last month, Attorney General Greg Abbott ruled that the Texas constitution limits pardon power only in cases of treason or impeachment.
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