Tim Cole’s pardon represents a tremendous victory for his family, I.P.O.T., and the Texas criminal justice system as a whole.  We are optimistic that Tim’s story will shed light on the wrongful conviction problem and will pave the way forward for reform.  As a result of Tim’s exoneration, the Texas legislature already passed the Tim Cole Act, which is the most generous exoneree compensation statute in the United States.  In addition, the state created the Timothy Cole Advisory Panel to study the causes of wrongful convictions in Texas.  

Even with all of the progress made over the past several months as a result of Timothy Cole’s tragic story, there is still more to be done.  With potentially hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent men and women in the Texas prison system, our work is just getting started…

The Texas Attorney General’s Office today issued an opinion stating that the Governor can grant posthumous pardons. The opinion was requested on behalf of Timothy Cole, a man who died in prison in 1999 while serving a sentence for rape and was exonerated by the Innocence Project of Texas in February 2009. Click here to read the AG’s opinion. Cole’s family has sought a pardon from the Governor ever since his exoneration last year. However, Governor Rick Perry was uncertain if he could issue a pardon to a person who was deceased. In July, Senator Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, requested an opinion from the Attorney General’s Office to settle the matter.

“This is the final chapter in a case that everyone told us couldn’t be done,” said Jeff Blackburn, founder and chief counsel of the Innocence Project of Texas. “Not only did we find a way to exonerate someone posthumously, but now they can be pardoned too. I’ve never been prouder to be a part of the Innocence Project of Texas.”

Cole was a student at Texas Tech University when he was convicted of rape in 1985 and sentenced to 25 years in prison. He died of a massive asthma attack in 1999. The Innocence Project of Texas began investing Cole’s case after the actual perpetrator wrote to them confessing to the crime. A DNA test proved Cole was not the rapist but a Lubbock court denied the family’s request for a hearing. The Innocence Project of Texas took the case to district judge Charlie Baird’s court in Austin last February where Cole was officially exonerated.

“This is the final hurdle in a marathon race toward the justice finish line for Tim,” said Cory Session, brother of Tim Cole. “But just because we’re getting Tim’s pardon, by no means are we finished because there are still many changes that need to be made to the criminal justice system to prevent future wrongful convictions like Tim’s.”

The Innocence Project of Texas will submit a formal request for a pardon to the Governor’s Office. An aide to the Governor has said he will sign the pardon once it reaches his desk.

The Times article interviews several individuals including Randy Morse, a county attorney in Fort Bend, who is defending Deputy Pikett. Regarding the reliability of dog scent lineups, he cites a capital murder case in which Deputy Pikett was used to get a conviction and states “We believe in this stuff.”

Also, see the follow up entry in the NY Times blog section.

1. Shirley Baccus-Lobel: A Texas Monthly “Super Lawyer” whose national practice represents individuals charged with federal crimes, complex state offenses, appeals and investigations.  Shirley once worked with the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. and as a First Assistant and Criminal Chief at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas.
2. Jeff Blackburn: A successful criminal defense attorney who is resposible for  securing the release of 35 people convicted as part of the drug sting in Tulia, Texas in 1999.  The State Bar of Texas named him Criminal Defense Lawyer of the Year for 2002-2003 and he has been named a Texas Monthly “Super Lawyer” each year since 2003.
3. Catherine Greene Burnett: Associate Dean of Clinical Studies and Director of the Pro Bono Honors Program at South Texas College of Law in Houston. Prior to joining the faculty at South Texas, Burnett worked as an assistant attorney general and practiced criminal defense for 11 years.
4. Nicole Casarez: An attorney and professor at the University of St. Thomas, where she teaches journalism, media law, public relations and media ethics.  Nicole and her students were largely responsible for an investigation of Anthony Graves’s innocence claim, which ultimately led to a reversal of his death penalty conviction at the 5th Circuit.
5. Alexandra Gauthier: A practicing criminal defense attorney in Austin, Texas.  Gauthier received a J.D. from Ohio State University and earned an undergraduate degree from San Diego State University.  She is member of a team of attorneys responsible for securing the release of Robert Springsteen and Michael Scott, defendants in the infamous “Yogurt Shop” murders, whose guilt was called in to question as a result of DNA testing.
6. Gerry Goldstein: A nationally known defense lawyer and past President of both the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association. He is listed in The Best Lawyers in America and Texas Lawyer’s Legal Legends and has served as an adjunct professor of law at University of Texas School of Law and at St. Mary’s University School of Law.  Goldstein is a fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers and the International Academy of Trial Lawyers.
7. Bill Habern: One of the founding partners in Habern, O’Neil and Pawgan, the first full-time, full service corrections law firm in the State of Texas.  Habern has practiced in the area of prison and parole law for over 30 years.  Among many notable cases, Habern was part of the defense team that won a U.S. Supreme Court case (Ray v. U.S.) in 1987.  Most recently, Habern won a federal lawsuit that found two top state parole officials violated the constitutional rights of an ex-convict who was denied a required hearing.  Jurors also held the Board of Pardon and Paroles Chairman personally liable for damages and his client’s attorney’s fees.
8. Joyce King: A freelance writer in Dallas and an advocate for the wrongfully convicted. King is the author of Hate Crime: The Story of a Dragging in Jasper, Texas, an acclaimed book on the dragging death of James Byrd in 1998.  King is a former reporter and anchor for a CBS radio affiliate and writes opinion pieces for USA Today, the Christian Science Monitor and the Dallas Morning News.  Her last book was Forgotten Hurricane, about the aftermath of Hurricane Rita in southeast Texas.
9. Peter Lesser: An accomplished criminal defense attorney in Dallas, Texas.  He is a past president-elect of the Dallas County Criminal Bar Association.  Lesser received his J.D. from Southern Methodist University and has been practicing law since 1974.  He has been named as a Texas Monthly “Super Lawyer” since 2003.
10. Jani Maselli: A practicing appellate attorney and an Adjunct Professor of Law, Legal Research and Writing at the University of Houston Law Center.  Maselli is a former staff attorney for Inmate Legal Services in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and was a staff attorney for the Honorable Charles F. Baird, Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
11. Gianpaolo Macerola: Founder of the Criminal Justice Project at South Texas College of Law. Macerola teamed up with Attorney Bob Wicoff to help review the Houston Police Department’s Crime Lab errors over the last 20 years.  While at South Texas, the project was able to aid in the release of one such inmate.  He is a member of Macerola and Associates in Houston.
12. Walter Reaves: An accomplished appellate attorney in Waco with over 28 years of experience in post-conviction representation.  Among several notable cases, Reaves represented Calvin Washington, who was wrongfully imprisoned for 15 years and was released in 2001 after Reaves worked to prove his innocence.  He also represented Cameron Todd Willingham on his post-conviction writs and was responsible for securing an expert report that indicated Willingham may have been wrongfully convicted of capital murder.
13. Anthony Robinson: A successful attorney who practices law in Houston, Texas and China. Robinson was wrongfully convicted of rape in 1986 and was exonerated in 2000.  He went on to earn his J.D. from Texas Southern University.
14. Natalie Roetzel: Current Staff Attorney at the Innocence Project of Texas Clinic at the Texas Tech School of Law.  Roetzel received her J.D. from the Texas Wesleyan University School of Law in 2007, where she co-founded the Wesleyan Innocence Project and was a member of the Wesleyan Law Review’s editorial board.
15. Katherine Scardino: A practicing criminal defense and family law attorney in Houston.  She earned her J.D. from the University of Houston law school in 1984.  Among several notable cases, Scardino represented Joe Durrett, who was acquitted of capital murder. She is also an attorney for Anthony Graves, who is facing a re-trial following the reversal of his death penalty capital murder conviction.  Scardino has been named as a Texas Monthly Super Lawyer since 2006 and has appeared frequently on television including the late Johnny Cochran’s Cochran & Company and MSNBC.
16. Cory Session: The current Policy Director for the Innocence Project of Texas.  He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1991 and worked as a legislative aid for Representative Garfield Thompson from 1991 to 1994.  Session is the brother of Timothy Cole, who was posthumously exonerated by I.P.O.T. in 2009.  He testified during the 81^st Texas Legislature and lobbied for innocence-related legislation.  He lives in Fort Worth with his wife and five children and is the owner of Session Properties.
17. Gary Udashen: An experienced trial and appellate attorney in Dallas.  Udashen has over 25 years experience trying cases in both Federal and State courts.  He frequently appears as a speaker at seminars for groups such as State Bar of Texas, Dallas Bar Association and the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association.  He has been named as a Texas Monthly Super Lawyer each year since 2003 and is a frequent contributor to the Voice for the Defense.  In 2008, Udashen was appointed by the Court of Criminal Appeals to serve as a member of the newly formed Criminal Justice Integrity Unit.
18. Bob Wicoff: A criminal defense attorney in Houston since 1983, he has been board certified in criminal law since 1989.  Wicoff served as the co-director of the Houston Police Department Crime Lab Review Panel.  In August, he was chosen as one of three defense attorneys to review all Chapter 64 cases in Harris County.  His practice is limited to post-conviction writs, direct appeals, and DNA litigation.
19. James Woodard: convicted of a murder he did not commit in 1981, James spent 27 years incarcerated. On April 29, 2008 Woodward was released from prison as a result of the joint efforts of the Innocence Project of Texas and the Dallas DA’s office.  Woodard testified during the 81^st legislative session and lobbied in support of innocence-related legislation. Woodard received a pardon from Governor Perry in September 2009.  He lives in Dallas.

Upon learning that the Governor formally cleared his name, Mr. Woodard said: “I wish to extend my sincere thanks to the individuals who helped me gain my freedom. Also, I wish to extend a personal thank you to Governor Perry for signing my pardon. He is a warm and sincere person.” According to Innocence Project of Texas Chief Counsel, Jeff Blackburn, “This is not just a great day for James Woodard, it’s a great day for Texas justice. It shows that Governor Perry can and will do the right thing when the situation requires it.“

Woodard became a free man in April 2008, when his murder conviction was reversed in a Dallas County courtroom after DNA proved he was innocent of the crime. More than a year later, James Woodard has received the pardon he waited for nearly three decades.

Mr. Woodard was represented by IPOT Chief Counsel Jeff Blackburn and Jason Partney on his pardon application. As a result of the Governor granting the pardon, Woodard is now eligible to receive compensation from the state under the Timothy Cole Compensation Act. That Act is named after IPOT Exoneree, Timothy Cole, who spent approximately 13 years in prison for a sexual assault he did not commit and later became the first person posthumously exonerated by DNA evidence in Texas.