Your lying eyes

Tim Cole (African-American) was convict of abducting at knife point and raping a 15 year old white girl in 1986. He was a freshman at Texas Tech. The girl that was raped IDed Tim from a photo. She also told police that the rapist was a chain smoker. Tim had asthma and never smoked. He also had 4 witnesses that put him in his apartment playing cards at the time of the crime. Outside of the eye witness, there was no evidence connecting Tim. No fingerprints in the car even though he drove it for several miles. No DNA.

In 1995, after the statute of limitations ran out, Jerry Johnson confessed to the crime. He wrote the prosecutor that he was guilty, not Tim. No response. He wrote the judge. No response. He wrote the defense attorney. No response. He wrote the district clerk. No response. In 2007, he tried to write Tim. Tim had died of asthma in his cell in 1999. (Texas prisons, another story) His mother got the letter of confession. She got a DNA test ordered ... and Johnson was a match. She tried to get her son exonerated but the Lubbock judge refused. Today a Texas appeals court is expected to clear Tim's record. This is the 34th case in Texas of wrongful conviction.

Three lessons:

• Texas Justice
• It's more than Texas and is why OJ got away with murder (the other side of so many wrongful convictions is some guilty go free)
• Don't believe your lying eye. Witnesses are unreliable.