DUANE
Duane's take
Here's the story as the official marker tells it — and this one, friends, you need to hear all the way through. Timothy Brian Cole was born in Brenham in 1960. He served in the U.S.
Army. He attended Texas Tech University in Lubbock. By every measure, a man building a life.
Then, while he was a student in Lubbock, Cole was accused of assaulting a fellow student. In September 1986, a jury convicted him and sentenced him to 25 years in prison. Now — before that trial even started — he was offered probation.
All he had to do was plead guilty. He wouldn't do it. And then, once he was behind bars, they came to him again.
Parole, they said, if he'd just admit guilt. He still wouldn't do it. Timothy Cole refused to take blame for a crime he did not commit.
Not once. Not ever. In December 1999, Timothy Cole died in prison at age 39 from complications from asthma.
He never got out. Hold on to that for a moment. Because the story isn't over.
In 2007 — eight years after his death — the Innocence Project of Texas received a letter from an inmate confessing to the very crime for which Cole had been convicted. Physical evidence confirmed it. That man was guilty.
Timothy Cole was innocent. And here's something else the marker tells you. The crime victim herself joined Cole's family in the effort to clear his name.
Cole's advocates took the case to District Court in Travis County, using a court of inquiry to obtain a hearing on his innocence. In April 2009, that court declared Timothy Cole innocent — and the words they used were precise and deliberate — innocent to a, quote, one hundred percent moral, legal and factual certainty. Then the other two branches of state government cleared his name and his record as well.
In 2009, the 81st Texas Legislature enacted the Tim Cole Act to compensate wrongly convicted individuals. They also created the Timothy Cole Advisory Panel on Wrongful Convictions, charged with reversing other wrongful imprisonments and preventing future miscarriages of justice. And in March 2010, the Texas Governor's Office issued the first posthumous pardon in state history.
First. In all of state history. Timothy Cole never saw any of it.
He died in that prison in 1999, still refusing to confess to something he didn't do. But he left something behind. From inside those walls, he once wrote that he still believed in the justice system — even though, in his words, it didn't believe in him.
That's the legacy the marker names. A promise of fairness for all Texans, carried forward by a man who held onto his belief in justice longer than justice held onto him.
What the marker says
Timothy Brian Cole, born in Brenham in 1960, served in the U.S. Army and attended Texas Tech University in Lubbock. While there, Cole was accused of assaulting a fellow student. In September 1986, a jury convicted him and sentenced him to 25 years in prison. Prior to the trial, he was offered probation in exchange for a guilty plea, and while in prison, he was offered parole if he would admit guilt. He refused to take blame for a crime he did not commit. In December 1999, he died in prison at age 39 from complications from asthma. In 2007, the Innocence Project of Texas received a letter from an inmate confessing to the crime for which Cole was convicted. Physical evidence confirmed that this man was guilty and Cole was innocent. The crime victim joined Cole’s family in the effort to clear his name. In District Court in Travis County, Cole’s advocates successfully used a court of inquiry to obtain a hearing on his innocence. In April 2009, the court declared that Cole was innocent of the crime “to a 100% moral, legal and factual certainty.” Following this opinion and order of the court, the other two branches of state government also cleared Cole’s name and record. In 2009, the 81st Texas Legislature enacted the Tim Cole Act, to compensate wrongly convicted individuals, and created the timothy cole advisory panel on wrongful convictions to reverse other wrongful imprisonments and prevent future miscarriages of justice. In March 2010, the Texas Governor’s Ooffice issued the first posthumous pardon in state history. This promise of fairness for all Texans is the legacy of a man who once wrote from prison that "I still believe in the justice system, even though it doesn’t believe in me.” 175 Years of Texas Independence * 1836 - 2011