Judge Moves To Clear Dead Man Of Rape Conviction
Friday, Feb 6, 2009 | Updated 6:15 PM CDT
Timothy Cole
A Texas judge has ordered the exoneration of a man who died in prison while serving time for rape after DNA tests showed another man committed the crime.
State District Judge Charles Baird said Friday that Timothy Cole should be exonerated and his record expunged.
Cole was convicted of raping a Texas Tech University student in Lubbock in 1985 and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. He died in 1999 at age 38 from asthma complications.
DNA tests last year linked the crime to Jerry Wayne Johnson, who is in prison for separate rapes. Johnson testified Friday that he was the rapist and asked the victim and Cole's family to forgive him.
The Innocence Project of Texas says Cole's case is the first posthumous DNA exoneration in state history.
