The long-estranged father of the first prison inmate to be posthumously exonerated by DNA testing in Texas has suddenly come forward, claiming he's entitled to half of the nearly $1.1 million the state awarded the man's family.
Ernest Kennard obtained an order from a Fort Worth judge this month entitling him to half of Tim Cole's estate. Cole's half-brother says the family is outraged and the order was recently suspended pending a review of Cole's will.
Cole's family received the money under the 2009 Timothy Cole Act, which awards $80,000 for each year of wrongful imprisonment. Cole was convicted of a 1985 rape and died in prison in 1999. He was cleared by a DNA test in 2008.
Repeated calls to Kennard's attorney by The Associated Press weren't returned.