A guy named Tim Cole was picked out of a line-up for rape in 1985 in Lubbock, Texas. He was convicted and sentenced to 25 years. In 1995, a man named Jerry Johnson sent a letter confessing to the crime to the Lubbock District Clerk. Under the tender care of the Texas penal system, Tim Cole died of asthma in 1999. In 2008, they tested Jim Johnson and it proved he was the rapist.
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Apparently, they are balking at clearing Tim Cole's name because no legal apparatus is in place in the state of Texas to do so for a dead man.
From the June 30, 2008 Lubbock Avalanche Journal by Elliot Blackburn:
He was less certain with what he could legally do for Tim Cole. His office had already done much more than the law required, he reminded a reporter repeatedly. Now he was leery of setting the precedent for an unprecedented legal problem.
"If the guy was alive, that would be easier," Powell said. "There's a process in place for that. But because he died, there's no legal process or remedy in place for that.
"We'll do what we can to clear the guy's name."
Texas Innocence Project attorney Jeff Blackburn requested on Friday a court of inquiry be held on Tim's case. The process would use a rarely tapped power allowing a Texas district judge to start an investigation into violation of state laws.
"If we're going to live in a society where the court system operates in a fair way, then it's got to do it across the board," Blackburn said. "They have a right to have a court of record tell them that their son was innocent."
The filing requires a district judge to recommend the hearing. If a Lubbock judge chooses not to, the law allows Blackburn to take the request to any other judge in the state.
"We will go to every single district judge until we find one that thinks something ought to be done here," Blackburn said. "I hope I just mean that rhetorically."
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