Posthumous DNA Exoneratoin

Tim Cole, convicted of raping a Texas Tech student in 1985, died in prison in 1999. But DNA evidence not available at the time of his conviction has shown that another man, already imprisoned for rape, committed the crime for which Cole was sentenced to 25 years. The victim of that rape has come forward to urge that Cole's conviction be overturned.

Also speaking out on behalf of Cole is Jerry Wayne Johnson, the man implicated by DNA testing as the actual perpetrator. Amazingly, Johnson, who is now serving time for two other rapes committed in the 1980s has been trying to convince authorities for more than a decade that he, not Tim Cole, was the guilty party.

Lubbock County prosecutors have acknowledged the DNA test shows Cole was not the rapist. There is, however, no simple legal channel to formally exonerate someone who has died.

Read the story in the Houston Chronicle.