|
 Tim Cole
N 32° 47.605 W 097° 18.645
14S E 658178 N 3629647
Texas Historical Marker near the grave of Tim Cole in the Lake Lawn section at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Fort Worth, TX. This is the first Texas Historical Marker for a man who went to prison for a crime he did not commit.
Waymark Code: WMDQVQ
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 02/16/2012
Views: 12
Army veteran Tim Cole was convicted of an assault he did not commit, went to jail for it rather than plea bargain in exchange for a confession, and died in prison before the real assailant confessed to the crime. He was eventually cleared because of the work of the Innocence Project of Texas, the victim, and Cole's family.
Marker Number: 17068
Marker Text:
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 Office 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
Marker is property of the State of Texas
|
Visit Instructions:
Please include a picture in your log. You and your GPS receiver do not need to be in the picture. We encourage additional information about your visit (comments about the surrounding area, how you ended up near the marker, etc.) in the log.
|