On March 1 Texas Governor Rick Perry officially pardoned Timothy Cole, who was wrongfully convicted over two decades ago. Tragically, the DNA tests that proved Cole's innocence came too late: he died in prison in 1999 while serving time for a rape he did not commit. A faulty lineup led to inaccurate eyewitness evidence in Cole's case, which serves as a reminder of the urgent need for eyewitness identification reforms that increase reliability and reduce the risk of mistakes. Cole's case was one of the thirty-nine Texas wrongful convictions exposed by DNA profiled in The Justice Project's report Convicting the Innocent: Texas Justice Derailed.
Texas has had more than its share of tragic wrongful convictions. Of the more than 40 people exonerated by DNA in Texas, one of the most heartbreaking cases is that of Timothy Cole. Cole was wrongly convicted in 1986 for a Lubbock rape. DNA testing conclusively exonerated him last year and identified the true perpetrator. But the exoneration came too late. In 1999, Cole died in prison of a severe asthma attack, an innocent man.
So far, Texas has been slow to respond to the long list of mistakes that exist in each of these wrongful convictions. These mistakes have forced innocent people to spend over 500 years in prison for crimes they did not commit. But that may be about to change. Last May, the Texas Legislature approved a bill creating the Timothy Cole Advisory Panel on Wrongful Convictions, and directing the Texas Task Force on Indigent Defense to work with the panel on a report on needed reforms to prevent wrongful convictions. The Cole Panel's inaugural meeting is slated for today.
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