Big news out of Austin today:
A state district judge in Austin today is expected to formally clear a man who died in prison 13 years into a 25-year sentence for a rape he did not commit, making him the first posthumous DNA exoneration in Texas history.
Jerry Wayne Johnson testified at a court of legal inquiry that he committed the 1985 rape of a Texas Tech student for which Timothy Cole (in the portrait) was convicted. State District Judge Charles Baird already indicated after a February hearing that he would exonerate Timothy Cole, who was convicted of a 1985 sexual assault of a Texas Tech University student. Baird is expected to reveal the legal reasoning for his decision during a hearing today in his Austin courtroom, lawyers from the Innocence Project of Texas said.
Cole died in 1999 at 38 of complications from asthma.
He always maintained his innocence.
It's cold comfort to Cole's family, but at least he didn't die at the hands of the state. Still, it will be only a matter of time before DNA shows that the state of Texas executed an innocent man on death row. This is why I oppose the death penalty. I cannot agree that murderers don't deserve to pay for their crime with their life. They do. But I do not have enough faith in human judgment to put a man to death, based on "beyond reasonable doubt." If the state dramatically raised the bar for capital murder cases to mandate DNA evidence as well as multiple eyewitnesses, I would support maintaining the death penalty. But nobody's talking about that, and I believe today's DNA exoneration of Cole is a sign of things to come on the death penalty front.
When that day comes, what, then? Will people shrug and say, "Oh well, you can't win 'em all"? Or will there be some serious move toward reforming our death penalty, even if we don't abolish it?
A state district judge in Austin today is expected to formally clear a man who died in prison 13 years into a 25-year sentence for a rape he did not commit, making him the first posthumous DNA exoneration in Texas history.
Jerry Wayne Johnson testified at a court of legal inquiry that he committed the 1985 rape of a Texas Tech student for which Timothy Cole (in the portrait) was convicted. State District Judge Charles Baird already indicated after a February hearing that he would exonerate Timothy Cole, who was convicted of a 1985 sexual assault of a Texas Tech University student. Baird is expected to reveal the legal reasoning for his decision during a hearing today in his Austin courtroom, lawyers from the Innocence Project of Texas said.
Cole died in 1999 at 38 of complications from asthma.
He always maintained his innocence.
It's cold comfort to Cole's family, but at least he didn't die at the hands of the state. Still, it will be only a matter of time before DNA shows that the state of Texas executed an innocent man on death row. This is why I oppose the death penalty. I cannot agree that murderers don't deserve to pay for their crime with their life. They do. But I do not have enough faith in human judgment to put a man to death, based on "beyond reasonable doubt." If the state dramatically raised the bar for capital murder cases to mandate DNA evidence as well as multiple eyewitnesses, I would support maintaining the death penalty. But nobody's talking about that, and I believe today's DNA exoneration of Cole is a sign of things to come on the death penalty front.
When that day comes, what, then? Will people shrug and say, "Oh well, you can't win 'em all"? Or will there be some serious move toward reforming our death penalty, even if we don't abolish it?
See TDMN's "Death No More" project for more info.
FD: Great Statistical Graphic at this link: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/img/04-07/0415deathpenaltystats.pdf
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