The Innocence Project of Texas

Innocence Project of Texas attorneys, Jeff Blackburn and Natalie Roetzel, filed a petition in the 99th District Court on Friday asking the court to commence a court of inquiry into the wrongful conviction of Timothy Cole. Cole, who was convicted of a Lubbock rape in the mid-1980s, always insisted that he was wrongfully convicted, but it was not until several years later that another man, Jerry Johnson, began writing the Innocence Project of Texas and others asserting that he was the man who committed the crime. Unfortunately, these confessions would come too late, as Cole passed away in prison before his innocence could be established.

This week, the Innocence Project of Texas learned that DNA testing confirms Johnson’s story. Results of the test exclude Timothy Cole as the perpetrator, and they also establish Johnson as the actual guilty party. If Innocence Project of Texas attorneys are successful in obtaining a court of inquiry on behalf of Timothy Cole’s family, Cole’s could be the first posthumous exoneration in Texas history.

For more information about the crime, Cole’s sentence, and Johnson’s confessions, please visit the following feature series currently running in the Lubbock Avalanche Journal:

• Part 1: Hope Deferred: Search for Lubbock Rapist Sends Family on Nightmare Journey
• Part 2: Hope Deferred: Tim Cole Sat in Prison While Another Man Kept Silent About the Truth…
• Part 3: to be released on Monday, June 30
  

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