Family of Wrongfully Convicted Speaks Out

Timothy Brian Cole was convicted of raping a Lubbock woman in 1986.  But it wasn't until after his death in 1999, that he was proven innocent.

            Now his family is trying to move on.

“He would respond as saying, ‘One day, it will all come out,’” said Cole Sessions, Cole’s brother.  “But we never knew it would come out after his death.”

            Cole died 13 years after he was put behind bars for a crime he didn't commit.  It was in 1986 that Cole was plucked from a line-up and later convicted of the rape.

            No phsycial evidence was used, no questioning.  Just the victim's word.

“It's easy to look at things in hindsight,” said Judge Jim Bob Darnell, who was the prosecutor in Cole’s trial.   “But at the point and time that all that happened it's hard to know what might have been done to make things different."

            And now the family wants answers as to why their innocent son, had to die serving time he didn't owe.

            "They need to know what went wrong here,” said Natalie Retzle, Executive Director of the Innocence Project in Texas.  “And more importantly the citizens of Lubbock and Texas need to know what went wrong because if it can happen to Timothy Cole it can happen again."

            A letter from Jerry Wayne Johnson, admitting he was the true perpetrator, was just a few years too late.  Cole's family received the letter last year.  And even though it came too late... Corey Session stands by his brother's decision not  to admit guilty.  An admission that could've saved him imprisonment.

He chose to live in a free society, rather than live as a free man,” said Session. “And that was the best role model, you know, courage, conviction, he had those things.”

            Now, Cole's family is headed to the state.  And if successful, Cole will be the first man in the state of Texas to be exonerated after his death… stripping Cole of the crime.  But also something that Cole's mother feels is what her son wanted most.

“I'm waiting to go to Austin,” said Ruby Session, Cole’s mother.   “That's utmost importance, in my mind, to get that piece of paper from the governor stating what my child longed for.”

The District Attorney's office will now decide if the case should be reopened, and then they will go from there to potentially have Cole exonerated.