Score None for the Judicial Process

When it comes to courts, the hope is always that they will get it right. Failing that, that the state will move swiftly to redress any wrongful convictions. Twenty-two years after his original conviction, DNA testing by the Lubbock County district attorney has proved that Tim Cole was not responsible for a 1985 rape at Texas Tech, the school he attended after leaving the Army. This is a significant, if belated, victory for the use of post-conviction DNA testing in Texas.

In a press release, Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, praised the Innocence Project of Texas for doggedly pursuing the case, and said he hoped that the state's new Criminal Justice Integrity Unit will encourage the legislature "to address the many flaws in our system including eyewitness identification error, which caused the wrongful conviction of Mr. Cole and the majority of wrongful convictions in Texas."

But don't get too elated. Cole died in 1999, four years after another man, Jerry Johnson, admitted to the rape and was ignored by law enforcement and prosecutors. Cole was not executed. He died of an asthma attack, brought about by prison-yard dust. He was 39. Today would have been his 48th birthday. Considering that Texas lawmakers have spent the last week bemoaning the fact that the U.S. Supreme Court won't let them execute convicted rapists, that seems somehow significant.