www.star-telegram.com/state_news/story/1190339.html QUOTE:
A day of vindication for innocent Fort Worth man, family
By MAX B. BAKER
maxbaker@star-telegram.com
AUSTIN — Saying that Timothy Cole "suffered the greatest miscarriage of justice imaginable in our criminal justice system," a Travis County judge Friday exonerated Cole in the 1985 sexual assault of a Texas Tech student — a wrongful conviction that sent him to prison, where he died.
State District Judge Charles Baird also ordered that Cole’s conviction be expunged from state records.
"I find to a 100 percent moral, factual and reasonable certainty that Timothy Cole did not sexually assault" the student, Baird said from the bench. "I find that Timothy Cole’s reputation was wrongly injured, that his reputation must be restored, and that his good name must be vindicated."
According to lawyers with the Innocence Project of Texas, who presented Cole’s case to Baird, Cole is the first person in Texas to be posthumously exonerated by DNA evidence.
Cole died in prison in 1999 while serving a 25-year sentence. He always said he was innocent.
Cole’s family and Innocence Project lawyers hope to use Baird’s ruling to win a pardon for Cole from Gov. Rick Perry.
Support for ruling
Members of Cole’s family raised their hands in praise to the Lord as Baird delivered his decision.
Then they applauded.
His mother, Ruby Session, a retired Fort Worth schoolteacher, hugged Baird when he came down from the bench to greet her.
The judge’s ruling concluded two days of wrenching testimony, including the appearance Friday of Jerry Wayne Johnson, the real rapist.
Also in court was the woman he assaulted in 1985, Michele Mallin.
Mallin, now 44, lives in Baytown. Johnson, 49, is serving two consecutive life sentences for other sexual assaults in Lubbock in 1985.
He briefly took the stand to read a statement outlining how he tried to set the record straight.
"I am responsible for all this. I’m truly sorry for my pathetic behavior and selfishness, and I hope and pray you will forgive me," Johnson said.
Johnson first confessed in 1995, but authorities in Lubbock County ignored his letters, he said.
He then contacted the Lubbock newspaper and Texas Tech law school students working for the Innocence Project. They persuaded Lubbock County District Attorney Matt Powell to begin an inquiry, and new DNA tests, using technology not available in 1986, confirmed Johnson’s guilt.
While Johnson read his statement, Session and Mallin sat at the attorneys’ table.
When he was finished, Mallin pointed her finger and screamed at Johnson.
"I’m going to try and forgive you, but it’s going to take a long, hard time," Mallin said. "I just hope you live out your last miserable days in prison and suffer the rest of your life."
Session, standing not far from an enlargement of her son’s prom picture, said she "still missed his smiles." Later, she said she doesn’t know when she will be able to forgive Johnson.
"I have to do a lot of soul-searching," she said.
'Saddest case’
Baird, a former Texas Court of Criminal Appeals justice, praised Cole’s courage from the bench and apologized to his family and Mallin.
"Timothy Cole suffered the greatest miscarriage of justice imaginable in our criminal justice system," Baird said. "I’ve been doing this for almost 30 years, and this is the saddest case I’ve seen."
Baird also promised to thoroughly review the record and make recommendations for criminal justice reform in his written opinion. He condemned the Lubbock authorities for a shabby investigation.
Problems with system
Earlier in the day, the court heard testimony from John Stickels, an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Arlington who works with the Innocence Project. He said this is an example of how a case can go seriously wrong.
"This case highlights the problems with the criminal justice system" and that some convictions are "based on faulty identifications, incomplete investigations and prosecutorial misconduct," Stickels said.
"It illustrates the changes that must be made."