By Bob Ray Sanders
bobray@star-telegram.com
If ever there were a voice speaking from the grave, Timothy Brian Cole's does.
If you're ever looking for a face to epitomize injustice in Texas and the United States, Cole's image will be the one staring back at you.
For those who refuse to believe that an innocent person could be convicted in a country founded on equal protection under the law, just consider the case of a young Texas Tech student from Fort Worth who was charged, tried, found guilty and sent to prison for a crime he did not commit.
But, as a documentary series premiering Tuesday on BET (Black Entertainment Television) shows, Cole is just one of many in this country who have been victims of a terribly flawed criminal "justice" system based on bad policing, over-zealous prosecution and, yes, racism.
Two years ago a crew from the network came to North Central Texas to record the stories of Cole and Joyce Ann Brown of Dallas as part of a "docu-series" about people who have been exonerated after spending way too many years in prison.
Of course, in Texas (which has the largest number of DNA exonerations in the country) a series on this subject could last longer than the popular television primetime soap opera
Dallas, starring the late Larry Hagman.
Titled
VINDICATED and hosted by acclaimed actor Morris Chestnut, the BET series is 11 compelling episodes which, according to network news releases, "explores the highs and the lows of various men and women as they attempt to rejoin society, rebuild family relationships and regain their trust in the justice system that undeniably failed them."
Unfortunately for Tim Cole, he would not get the chance to rejoin or rebuild anything. He died in prison of an asthma attack after having served 13 years of a 25-year sentence for aggravated sexual assault.
Cole first enrolled at Texas Tech hoping to become a "walk-on" to the school's basketball team. He left after two years, spent a couple of years in the Army and returned when his brother, Reginald Kennard, registered in 1985.
That year there was a series of rapes near the university. Cole was arrested and charged with allegedly abducting Michele Murray (now Mallin), a sophomore from Baytown. She was driven to a remote area, raped and robbed of $2, a Timex watch and a small diamond ring.
It was about eight years after Cole's death that a prisoner wrote to him - the letter came to his mother's Fort Worth home -- stating that he was the one who committed the crime. Jerry Wayne Johnson, who had been in the Lubbock jail at the same time Cole was being held there, said he had been trying since 1995 to tell Lubbock authorities that Cole was innocent.
The district attorney's office in Lubbock resisted DNA testing for a long time, but eventually relented. The test proved that Johnson was, in fact, the guilty man.
In 2009 District Judge Charles Baird exonerated Cole, making him the first person in Texas to be vindicated posthumously.
"Timothy Cole suffered the greatest miscarriage of justice imaginable in our criminal justice system," Baird said. "I've been doing this for almost 30 years and this is the saddest case I've seen."
Mallin has visited Cole's family and apologized for the mistake she made in identifying him as her attacker. His mother, Ruby Session, forgave the woman, telling her, "You are a victim [of the system] just like my son was."
Since then, legislation to aid exonerees has been passed bearing Cole's name, Gov. Rick Perry came to Fort Worth to officially pardon him, and a historical marker has been placed at his gravesite in Mount Olivet Cemetery.
The family continues to work on criminal justice legislation, and they keep reminding people of Cole's ordeal and his legacy.
BET kicks off its
VINDICATED series with the first of a two-part story on Cole at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday. The program will air at 9 p.m. each Tuesday after that through Jan. 22.
Bob Ray Sanders' column appears Sundays and Wednesdays.817-390-7775Twitter: @BobRaySanders
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