Latest / Wrongful Conviction / #251 Jason Flom on Tim Cole

Transcript

#251 Jason Flom on Tim Cole · Wrongful Conviction

0:02
Speaker 1: From the end of nineteen eighty four through the spring
0:05
Speaker 1: of eighty five, a serial rapist preyed on the campus
0:08
Speaker 1: of Texas Tech. Each incident was reported with eerily similar details,
0:12
Speaker 1: including the fifth attack on a twenty year old student
0:15
Speaker 1: who helped put together a composite sketch and underwent a
0:18
Speaker 1: rape kit. Meanwhile, Tim Cole, a new student at Texas Tech,
0:23
Speaker 1: arrived in the spring semester after the serial rapes had
0:25
Speaker 1: already begun. From a passing glance, a plain closed detector
0:29
Speaker 1: decided that Tim resembled the composite sketch. A suggestive photo
0:33
Speaker 1: lineuplet to Tim's misidentification, arrest and sexual assault charges solely
0:39
Speaker 1: for the fifth attack in the series. An additional rape
0:42
Speaker 1: occurred the day after he was taken into custody. Further,
0:45
Speaker 1: the rapist had smoked during all of the attacks, while Tim,
0:49
Speaker 1: a chronic asthma sufferer, had never smoked. The judge refused
0:52
Speaker 1: to admit evidence that this attack was part of a
0:55
Speaker 1: series that was also connected to a man who was
0:57
Speaker 1: then in custody. Without these en sculpting details, Tim was
1:01
Speaker 1: convicted on the victim's shaky testimony of quote, I think
1:05
Speaker 1: that's him after the statute of limitations expired, the serial
1:09
Speaker 1: rapist confessed but was ignored. DNA testing would eventually prove
1:13
Speaker 1: Tim's innocence, but not before complications from asthma tragically took
1:17
Speaker 1: his life. Were joined by his brother Corey and sister Karen,
1:21
Speaker 1: who shared their journey to posthumously exonerate Tim and restore
1:25
Speaker 1: his honor. This is Wrongful Conviction. Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction. Today.
1:44
Speaker 1: You're gonna hear a story that is unlike any we've
1:48
Speaker 1: ever told on this show. And I have to be honest,
1:53
Speaker 1: as I was reviewing the research on this case that
1:56
Speaker 1: I've known about for a long time this morning, I'm
1:58
Speaker 1: not a very emotional guy. I was fighting back tears
2:02
Speaker 1: and soon you'll understand why. But there's a lot of
2:05
Speaker 1: hope in this story too, and I hope that you'll
2:09
Speaker 1: take that away from this episode and from the extraordinary
2:13
Speaker 1: people that we have the privilege of having on the
2:16
Speaker 1: show with us today, and without further ado, I'm going
2:21
Speaker 1: to introduce the brother and sister of the man who
2:26
Speaker 1: was wrongfully convicted. His name was Tim Cole. He's not
2:30
Speaker 1: with us anymore, but his brother and sister are very
2:33
Speaker 1: much alive and are absolute warriors for justice. So Karen,
2:39
Speaker 1: we're going to introduce you first. Karen Kinnard is a
2:42
Speaker 1: shareholder in the Government Law and Policy Group at Greenbrig
2:45
Speaker 1: Scharig and she does quite a bit of pro bono
2:47
Speaker 1: innocence work. So Karen, welcome to Wrongful Conviction.
2:51
Speaker 2: Thank you. Jason's great to be here today.
2:54
Speaker 1: And we also have Tim Cole's brother here, Corey Session,
2:57
Speaker 1: who's vice president of the Innocence Project Texas. Corey, I'm
3:02
Speaker 1: just super happy and honored to have you on a
3:04
Speaker 1: show today.
3:05
Speaker 3: Oh, thank you for having me.
3:07
Speaker 1: And during our time today, we're going to get to
3:09
Speaker 1: the extraordinary work that each of you are doing and
3:11
Speaker 1: how much that would have meant to your brother. I
3:13
Speaker 1: only wish he was a lot to see it, honestly.
3:15
Speaker 1: And if we look back in time to back in
3:17
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty five, your brother, Tim Cole was in his
3:20
Speaker 1: mid twenties. He previously attended two years of college and
3:22
Speaker 1: then join the Army, where he spent the next two
3:24
Speaker 1: years before going back to school in nineteen eighty five,
3:26
Speaker 1: attending Texas Tech and set to major in political science.
3:30
Speaker 1: So first, before we go any further, can each of you.
3:34
Speaker 1: Just tell us a little about what your childhood was
3:37
Speaker 1: like and about your brother Tim's early life, your memories
3:40
Speaker 1: of him growing up. Karen, let's go to you first.
3:43
Speaker 4: Well, Tim was the oldest child in our family. We
3:46
Speaker 4: are a blended family, mother, stepfather, seven children, six boys,
3:51
Speaker 4: and I'm the only girl in that family. Wow, Tim's
3:57
Speaker 4: the oldest and I'm the second oldest. My memories of
4:00
Speaker 4: our family is that, you know, it was a happy childhood.
4:03
Speaker 2: We were fortunate.
4:04
Speaker 4: We had two hardworking, loving parents who tried to do
4:11
Speaker 4: everything they could to give us what I call a
4:14
Speaker 4: normal childhood. We grew up on a street called Hillview Drive,
4:18
Speaker 4: and there were like two other families with seven kids
4:22
Speaker 4: on He'll View Drive, and lots of other families with
4:25
Speaker 4: other kids. Tim was very well liked. He loved basketball.
4:30
Speaker 4: He took being a big brother very seriously. He was
4:34
Speaker 4: very responsive and responsible for us. I think all of
4:39
Speaker 4: us when he first went off to college remember receiving
4:43
Speaker 4: letters from him. He liked to write us letters, give
4:46
Speaker 4: us advice, check in on us, make sure we were
4:49
Speaker 4: on the right track. And those are some of the
4:52
Speaker 4: fondest memories I have of him, of him just being
4:56
Speaker 4: a guardian of us and Corey.
4:59
Speaker 1: I understand he's that he was never in any sort
5:01
Speaker 1: of trouble, right, so he would have seemed to be
5:03
Speaker 1: for a number of reasons. He would have seemed to
5:04
Speaker 1: be one of the least likely people in the entire
5:08
Speaker 1: town or maybe even the state, to have committed such
5:11
Speaker 1: a horrific crime. Is that fair to say?
5:14
Speaker 3: Absolutely? Tim was a quiet person. He was a peacemaker.
5:19
Speaker 3: I'll tell you one of the memories I have. I
5:22
Speaker 3: think I may have been six or seven years old,
5:25
Speaker 3: but I remember this vividly, and this will tell you
5:27
Speaker 3: the type person Tim was. It's a summer night. We
5:31
Speaker 3: were outside in front of our house and there had
5:33
Speaker 3: to be probably fifteen kids out there, and the topic
5:37
Speaker 3: people were talking about was what do you have to
5:39
Speaker 3: do to get to heaven? And they were going around
5:43
Speaker 3: the circle, Yeah, you got to do this, you have
5:45
Speaker 3: to do that. Well, Tim was sitting at the edge
5:48
Speaker 3: of the driveway with his hands around his knees. Tim's
5:51
Speaker 3: nickname was Ears, and one of the older kids said, Ears,
5:57
Speaker 3: what you think and it was very quiet, and my
6:00
Speaker 3: brother Tim said three things, just do right, and that
6:06
Speaker 3: was a pause. Then all of a sudden, that was
6:08
Speaker 3: an uproar up. Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, leave it
6:12
Speaker 3: to ears to make it simple and keep it simple,
6:15
Speaker 3: just do right.
6:17
Speaker 1: Yeah. I've never heard it said in such quiet, simple,
6:20
Speaker 1: sort of eloquent terms. But what a good thing to
6:23
Speaker 1: be known for or remembered by. And he lived it right.
6:26
Speaker 1: And he was not just talking to talk. He was
6:28
Speaker 1: walking the walk, serving his country, serving his family. I
6:32
Speaker 1: would say, right, yeah.
6:33
Speaker 4: Because he joined the army specifically to help our family.
6:37
Speaker 4: I mean we were seven kids and we were starting
6:40
Speaker 4: to have anywhere from three to four kids in college.
6:42
Speaker 4: He called me one night and said, you know, I'm
6:45
Speaker 4: doing this because I know I can get some college benefits.
6:49
Speaker 4: And he said, I want to help mother and my stepdad.
6:52
Speaker 4: He was always about trying to figure out how to
6:56
Speaker 4: help us, how to help the family, how to.
6:57
Speaker 2: Help all of us.
6:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, he was serving his family, his community, and his country.
7:03
Speaker 1: And that brings us to the fall of nineteen eighty
7:05
Speaker 1: four through eighty five, when a rapist had been terrorizing
7:08
Speaker 1: the campus of Texas Tech and Love It, having already
7:10
Speaker 1: victimized four women with the same mo each time.
7:14
Speaker 3: Right.
7:14
Speaker 1: The women had been taken from parking lots near campus,
7:18
Speaker 1: driven to desolate areas and raped. The assailant usually smoked
7:22
Speaker 1: cigarettes during the assaults and then would flee on foot. Now,
7:26
Speaker 1: on March twenty fourth, nineteen eighty five, the fifth abduction
7:28
Speaker 1: and rape involved a young student named Michelle Murray Mallin,
7:32
Speaker 1: just twenty years old at the time. Now, normally we
7:34
Speaker 1: do not mention sexual assault survivors and names here. However,
7:39
Speaker 1: Michelle is very vocal and open about her story. She
7:44
Speaker 1: was parking at a lot across from her dorm when
7:46
Speaker 1: a man approached asking for help to jumpstart his car.
7:50
Speaker 1: When she told him that she and hevity jumper cables,
7:52
Speaker 1: the man reached in through her window and unlocked the
7:54
Speaker 1: car door. Miss Mallin screamed and bit his thumb, but
7:58
Speaker 1: the man held a knife to her throat while he
8:00
Speaker 1: moved into the driver's seat and drove her to a
8:03
Speaker 1: vacant field outside the town, where he forced her to
8:05
Speaker 1: perform oral sex and then raped her. He then drove
8:08
Speaker 1: the car back to Lubbock, where he took two dollars
8:10
Speaker 1: in cash, a ring, and a watch from Ms. Mallin
8:12
Speaker 1: before leaving on foot, as he had done in all
8:15
Speaker 1: the other crimes. Ms Mallan called the police to report
8:19
Speaker 1: the attack. A rape kit was done, and she helped
8:21
Speaker 1: investigators with a composite sketch. Now, Tim once again was
8:27
Speaker 1: a student at Texas Tech at the time, but he
8:29
Speaker 1: was home on the night of the attack, studying. His
8:32
Speaker 1: brother was hosting a card game. So there were five
8:36
Speaker 1: different alibi witnesses. All of them were there with Tim.
8:39
Speaker 1: I mean, this story obviously should have ended right there,
8:43
Speaker 1: but it didn't. So, Corey, were you the one that
8:45
Speaker 1: was hosting the card game? I was not.
8:47
Speaker 3: I was still in high school. But my brother, Reggie
8:50
Speaker 3: was the one who was also at Texas Tech at
8:52
Speaker 3: that time, who was hosting a card game. Like you said,
8:56
Speaker 3: the atmosphere of Texas Tech, there's a rapist loose on camp.
9:00
Speaker 3: Parents were withdrawing their children out of school because they
9:03
Speaker 3: couldn't catch this person. So the temperature was high. We've
9:06
Speaker 3: got to find someone. Tim had a car. One of
9:09
Speaker 3: their roommates worked at the Mister Gaddy's Pizza and his
9:13
Speaker 3: roommate called him to come pick him up, and he said, here,
9:17
Speaker 3: I'll go pick you up. Mind you, this is daytime.
9:19
Speaker 3: He went down there to pick him up, saw a
9:21
Speaker 3: young lady walking outside paid no attention, went inside. His
9:25
Speaker 3: roommate came out and said, hey, yours, I'm not going
9:28
Speaker 3: to be able to get off right away. Can you
9:30
Speaker 3: come back? He said yeah. Well, that time that young
9:33
Speaker 3: lady was sitting in the restaurant, Tim got up, walked
9:37
Speaker 3: back to his car, got in his car. That young
9:39
Speaker 3: lady was walking down the sidewalk and she had made
9:42
Speaker 3: eye contact with him while in the restaurant, and she
9:46
Speaker 3: looked at him. So he let down his window and said,
9:50
Speaker 3: do you need a ride somewhere? And she said no,
9:54
Speaker 3: And he said are you sure and she said yes.
9:56
Speaker 3: He said, well here, he pulled out his drivers license.
10:00
Speaker 3: He said, my name is Tim Cole, and he showed
10:03
Speaker 3: her his driver's license and then he went and pulled
10:06
Speaker 3: out his Texas Tech ID. He said, you do not
10:08
Speaker 3: be afraid of me. I go to Texas Tech. And
10:11
Speaker 3: she said okay, and he said you sure you don't
10:14
Speaker 3: need anything? She said no, He said okay, and he
10:17
Speaker 3: drove off. Well, that lady was a undercover police officer
10:23
Speaker 3: named Joanna Bagbee and she immediately reported to her supervisors
10:29
Speaker 3: that's him. And the supervisors says, how do you know
10:33
Speaker 3: that's him? She said, because he looks like the sketch
10:37
Speaker 3: that was it. Now, Tim had reported his wallet being stolen,
10:41
Speaker 3: and they had no picture of Tim in the system,
10:44
Speaker 3: so they found his name that he had reported, so
10:47
Speaker 3: they knew his address. So they went to his address,
10:50
Speaker 3: knocked on the door and told him, Hey, we may
10:53
Speaker 3: have a witness who knows who sole your wallet, but
10:58
Speaker 3: we need to make sure that you are the person.
11:00
Speaker 3: Can we get a picture of you? And he said sure,
11:03
Speaker 3: So they took a polaroid picture outside of his apartment,
11:07
Speaker 3: and that's the one that they put in the six pack.
11:10
Speaker 3: One polaroid and five other black and white photos.
11:15
Speaker 1: One polaroid. I just want to repeat that in five
11:18
Speaker 1: other black and white photos. Let's just pause there for
11:21
Speaker 1: a second, shall we, because this is one of those
11:23
Speaker 1: techniques that police use that it's highly suggested to make
11:27
Speaker 1: one photo stand out from the others. Other cases we've
11:30
Speaker 1: seen there was only one person in handcuffs, or again
11:33
Speaker 1: in another case, there was a single picture in a
11:35
Speaker 1: photo array that was circled with red, like a red marker.
11:39
Speaker 3: So they took the photo, they put it in the lineup,
11:42
Speaker 3: and Michelle vividly remembers being shown the spread and she
11:47
Speaker 3: pointed at Tim and said, I think that's him, but
11:51
Speaker 3: the detective wrote near the photo, that's him, and that's
11:55
Speaker 3: what they ran with. Came back to his apartment. They
11:58
Speaker 3: arrested Tim. Reggie's as he heard Tim say, now, y'all
12:02
Speaker 3: got the wrong person. I haven't raped anybody, and the
12:06
Speaker 3: police took him and he told Reggie call mother that night.
12:10
Speaker 3: My mom flew to Lovebook to bond Tim out of jail,
12:14
Speaker 3: took him back home to Fort Worth, and she got
12:17
Speaker 3: a phone call from the attorney she had retained, a
12:21
Speaker 3: gentleman by the name of Mike Brown, and he said, Missession,
12:25
Speaker 3: I was calling to see if you guys made it home. Okay.
12:28
Speaker 3: She said, yeah, we did. He said, well, I got
12:30
Speaker 3: some bad news. There's been another rape today and she said, oh, Mike,
12:34
Speaker 3: I'm sorry to hear that. He said, well, not only that,
12:37
Speaker 3: they picked out Tim again and there was no way
12:40
Speaker 3: possible that he could have committed the rape.
12:43
Speaker 1: Right He was either in police custody or in Fort
12:46
Speaker 1: Worth when that day's rape had occurred, but he was
12:49
Speaker 1: identified nonetheless.
12:51
Speaker 3: When it comes to eyewitness identification, the best type of
12:55
Speaker 3: eyewitness identification to perform is a double blind procedure, which
13:00
Speaker 3: is not done at that time and is still not
13:02
Speaker 3: done in a lot of cases.
13:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, a double blind procedure is a very straightforward way
13:07
Speaker 1: of removing suggestion from the process, where the person administering
13:11
Speaker 1: the procedure will show the photos one at a time
13:14
Speaker 1: and not say anything, not make any suggestive comments. You
13:18
Speaker 1: simply say the person who committed the crime may or
13:21
Speaker 1: may not be in this line that I'm about to
13:23
Speaker 1: show you, and then show the person the photos while
13:26
Speaker 1: keeping your mouth shut. Because even a well meaning interviewer,
13:30
Speaker 1: if they have their own preconceived notion about who it
13:32
Speaker 1: is they're going to steer somebody. It could be subconsciously,
13:35
Speaker 1: and it might be something as subtle but still powerful
13:38
Speaker 1: as well. Keep trying, or you're doing a good job.
13:41
Speaker 1: I know how difficult is this for you, but maybe
13:43
Speaker 1: you want to take one more shot at Anything like
13:46
Speaker 1: that can be the difference between life and death for somebody,
13:49
Speaker 1: and between getting the right or the wrong person or
13:51
Speaker 1: nobody at all. And the resource has been done has
13:54
Speaker 1: shown that simple changes like instituting double blinds drastically reduces
13:59
Speaker 1: the incidences rompall identifications. While not and this is critical,
14:03
Speaker 1: While not reducing the instances of correct identifications right. So
14:08
Speaker 1: it's like there's literally only an upside here when the
14:12
Speaker 1: Innocis Project is leading the charge to try to institute
14:15
Speaker 1: double blind ideas as policy across the country. And for
14:18
Speaker 1: your brother's sake, I wish this had been the policy
14:21
Speaker 1: back then, not to mention the fact that he was
14:24
Speaker 1: in police custody and therefore, I mean, he couldn't have
14:30
Speaker 1: been in two places at once. He could not have
14:32
Speaker 1: committed the sixth rape, and they knew that.
14:36
Speaker 4: You also want to remember, the rapes happened before Tim
14:39
Speaker 4: got to Lubbock. The rapes hap started happening in the
14:41
Speaker 4: fall of nineteen eighty four. Tim didn't get to Lubock
14:45
Speaker 4: until the spring semester started in mid January of nineteen
14:48
Speaker 4: eighty five. And there were several of the victims who
14:52
Speaker 4: did not pick him out of any photo array or
14:56
Speaker 4: any of the live lineups. But the police wants that
15:01
Speaker 4: undercover officer said those words of that's him, became convinced
15:07
Speaker 4: that it was him.
15:21
Speaker 1: You can't be in two places at the same time.
15:24
Speaker 1: Tim could not have been either in police custody or
15:28
Speaker 1: in transit to Fort Worth with your mom while also
15:31
Speaker 1: out there committing the sixth rape, just like he could
15:35
Speaker 1: not have committed the initial four rapes before even coming
15:39
Speaker 1: to Lubbock to attend Texas Tech, or be at home
15:43
Speaker 1: studying during your brother Reggie's card game while Michelle Mallen
15:47
Speaker 1: was raped. And I have to say I really feel
15:50
Speaker 1: for Reggie too, right, because imagine what that would be
15:55
Speaker 1: like and how it must have impacted him, having known
15:58
Speaker 1: definitively that Tim was innocent because he was right there
16:01
Speaker 1: with him at the time.
16:03
Speaker 2: It drastically changed Reggie's life.
16:05
Speaker 4: He has felt responsible for a long time for everything
16:08
Speaker 4: that happened to Tim, and it took him over twenty
16:11
Speaker 4: five years, took him a lot of therapy to finally
16:14
Speaker 4: recognize that it wasn't his fault. He's done fine now,
16:17
Speaker 4: but took him a long long time.
16:20
Speaker 1: So the investigation was a bad mockery of an investigation.
16:25
Speaker 1: I would say the description, of course, had some glaring
16:30
Speaker 1: errors in it as well. When I say that the
16:32
Speaker 1: victim who's white, and we know that cross racial identifications
16:36
Speaker 1: are the most error prone, they're less accurate than guessing.
16:41
Speaker 1: And yes, you heard me correctly, and that's been proven
16:44
Speaker 1: in the study after study so she was white, and
16:47
Speaker 1: she described her attacker to police as a young African
16:50
Speaker 1: American man with bug eyes. Did your brother have bug eyes? No? Okay?
16:55
Speaker 1: And he was under six feet tall. The attacker, according
16:58
Speaker 1: to her initial description, wearing yellow shirt and sandals. How
17:02
Speaker 1: tall was Tim and did he own any kind of
17:04
Speaker 1: clothing such as.
17:06
Speaker 3: That Tim stood six foot one inch. The victim recounted
17:11
Speaker 3: that the person wore a yellow terry cloth shirt, and
17:15
Speaker 3: she remembers it because she always hated terry cloth shirts.
17:20
Speaker 3: They did collect a yellow shirt from my brother's possessions, however,
17:24
Speaker 3: it was not a terry cloth shirt.
17:26
Speaker 1: And she didn't give a lot of other details. I mean,
17:29
Speaker 1: the poor woman was obviously traumatized. But she did say,
17:33
Speaker 1: and this piece of the identification is unmistakable, right she
17:38
Speaker 1: said the perpetrator had smoked cigarettes throughout the attack. Now
17:43
Speaker 1: there's something about your brother where this should have, right
17:47
Speaker 1: now set off all kinds of warning signals, Karen, What
17:49
Speaker 1: am I talking about?
17:51
Speaker 4: Tim had asthma, He was born an asthmatic, had had
17:54
Speaker 4: problems with his asthma all his life, and did not
17:57
Speaker 4: smoke cigarettes.
17:58
Speaker 1: So even though them was consistent throughout and police had
18:02
Speaker 1: believed all along that the same person had committed all
18:05
Speaker 1: six rapes. Tim was arrested and charged with the aggravated
18:08
Speaker 1: sexual assault just of Miss Mallin and none of the
18:12
Speaker 1: other rapes. Now here's something I'm struggling with. Consider the
18:16
Speaker 1: nature of these crimes. Tim was offered a plea bargain
18:19
Speaker 1: with no prison time.
18:22
Speaker 3: Yes, the district attorney at that time, man by the
18:25
Speaker 3: name of Jimbob Darnel, the day before trial, told him,
18:29
Speaker 3: you were facing twenty five years in prison. We're going
18:31
Speaker 3: to offer you probation. And Tim said, I'd rather spend
18:36
Speaker 3: twenty five years in prison before I ever admit to
18:38
Speaker 3: something I did not do. And mister Darnell very smugly said, well,
18:45
Speaker 3: we aim to make sure that happens.
18:48
Speaker 1: If they believe that your brother was responsible for even
18:52
Speaker 1: one of these rapes. This is a black man in
18:55
Speaker 1: Texas accused of raping a white woman. Do you think
19:00
Speaker 1: that they would have offered him probation.
19:03
Speaker 2: No, not a chance in hell.
19:04
Speaker 4: There is no way they would have offered him probation.
19:07
Speaker 4: And let me just say, unlike a lot of these cases,
19:10
Speaker 4: my parents.
19:11
Speaker 2: Hired a very good lawyer.
19:13
Speaker 4: We were fortunate in that there were resources to do that.
19:18
Speaker 4: He did a really good job of investigating, and so
19:21
Speaker 4: we knew there was a police officer from the university
19:25
Speaker 4: who had told them that they had the wrong person,
19:28
Speaker 4: that Tim was not the person who had raped this
19:32
Speaker 4: young woman, that the Texas Tech Police Department gave him
19:36
Speaker 4: the name of who they thought the person was.
19:38
Speaker 3: And mind you, also, when they arrested Tim, they announced
19:42
Speaker 3: in the media, the radio, print, electronic media, that they
19:45
Speaker 3: had caught the tech rapists. They just did not want
19:48
Speaker 3: to say, oops, sorry, Tim, we got the wrong person.
19:52
Speaker 3: The attorney, Mike Brown, was very confident that they were
19:56
Speaker 3: going to drop the charges. He'd be found innocent because
19:59
Speaker 3: they had actually arrested another guy who had committed rapes
20:04
Speaker 3: with this same mo and other atturneyers were like, oh yeah,
20:08
Speaker 3: that'll be taking care, but they did not want to
20:11
Speaker 3: relinquish the fact that we got him and we're going
20:14
Speaker 3: to keep it. When that trial started, it was a
20:16
Speaker 3: media circus, and my mom brought some of the newspaper
20:19
Speaker 3: clippings and things home tech rapists, called tech rapists, all
20:25
Speaker 3: of these things.
20:26
Speaker 1: Now, the trial begins in September of nineteen eighty six.
20:28
Speaker 1: Remember this is before DNA testing, so they only had
20:31
Speaker 1: erology testing, in which you can determine blood types and
20:35
Speaker 1: whether or not the source of any bodily fluids as
20:37
Speaker 1: a secretor, meaning the blood type can be identified in
20:41
Speaker 1: all bodily fluids, not just blood. So the forensic examiners
20:45
Speaker 1: for the state had examined the rape kit and had
20:48
Speaker 1: identified a Type A blood secretor on the swab. However,
20:52
Speaker 1: the victim was a Type A secretor and Tim also
20:56
Speaker 1: had Type A blood, but his secretor's status was unknown,
21:00
Speaker 1: so therefore the yrology offered no meaningful conclusions at all.
21:03
Speaker 1: They also compared foreign pubic hairs collected from the victims
21:07
Speaker 1: to those from Tim and said that they had similar characteristics,
21:10
Speaker 1: but that they couldn't draw firm conclusions, so the biological
21:14
Speaker 1: evidence really offered very little to work with Corey. What
21:18
Speaker 1: else happened at trial?
21:19
Speaker 3: Michelle Mallin went on the witness stand and was asked,
21:24
Speaker 3: do you see the man in the courtroom that you
21:27
Speaker 3: said raped you? She said, I think That'sim and Tim
21:32
Speaker 3: being an asthmatic that's brought up can't smoke. She never
21:36
Speaker 3: knew that Tim was an asthmatic and couldn't smoke. The
21:40
Speaker 3: bite that she put on the actual perpetrator's phone. There
21:44
Speaker 3: were no bite marks on Tim.
21:46
Speaker 1: I mean, this is a woman who's literally fighting for
21:49
Speaker 1: her life. She didn't know whether she was going to
21:52
Speaker 1: survive this attack or not when she bit him, so
21:54
Speaker 1: she probably meant to take that finger clean off. How
21:58
Speaker 1: the hell would that not leave a mark?
22:00
Speaker 4: And you have to remember it was one week between
22:03
Speaker 4: when she was assaulted and when Tim was arrested. They
22:06
Speaker 4: didn't find any bite marks on him.
22:09
Speaker 1: So what about Tim's alibi witness testimony? Weren't there five
22:13
Speaker 1: alibi witnesses at your brother Reggie's card game.
22:16
Speaker 4: There was a vigorous defense with all of the alibi
22:19
Speaker 4: witnesses who were very certain that Tim was there that night.
22:24
Speaker 4: They were saying, you know, he was the studious one.
22:26
Speaker 4: He didn't join in the card game. They said he
22:28
Speaker 4: told him he had a test.
22:29
Speaker 3: When my brother Reggie testified, he was very certain and
22:34
Speaker 3: forceful that Tim did not do this. Tim was at home,
22:38
Speaker 3: and the prosecutor said he was being very brash, He'll
22:42
Speaker 3: say anything to protect his brother, Well Reggie. When he
22:45
Speaker 3: got through testifying, Mike Brown, the attorney grabbed him and
22:49
Speaker 3: took him outside and said, Reggie, I want you to
22:52
Speaker 3: listen to me very carefully. I want you to go
22:55
Speaker 3: down this hallway. I want you to go down the
22:57
Speaker 3: back steps, all the way downstairs and go out the back.
23:00
Speaker 3: My secretary is waiting for you. She's going to take
23:03
Speaker 3: it to the airport. You're gonna get on the plane
23:05
Speaker 3: and you're not to come back to Love the Love
23:07
Speaker 3: of police were going to charge Reggie with one of
23:11
Speaker 3: the rapes of the Tech rapists.
23:13
Speaker 2: Just for him defending my brother.
23:15
Speaker 3: Reggie remembers vividly tim telling him they got me, don't
23:19
Speaker 3: let them get you.
23:21
Speaker 1: That is just fucking terrifying.
23:23
Speaker 3: Michelle, when we talked to her, she told my mother
23:25
Speaker 3: in a session, I remember this because the rape crisis
23:28
Speaker 3: counselor told me. You know, they're going to arrest his
23:31
Speaker 3: brother too for the other rapes.
23:34
Speaker 1: These people just don't give a shit about truth, justice
23:37
Speaker 1: or anything. And just when you thought this couldn't get
23:40
Speaker 1: any worse. That brings us to Jerry Wayne Johnson.
23:44
Speaker 3: It was a Perry Mason moment when my brother's attorney,
23:48
Speaker 3: Mike Brown said who the rapist was? Jerry Wayne Johnson.
23:54
Speaker 3: Mike Brown wanted to introduce evidence showing the similarities and
23:59
Speaker 3: all the other but the judge denied it. He denied
24:03
Speaker 3: every time he would try and bring those things up
24:05
Speaker 3: about Jerry Wayne Johnson then pretting to hold an attorney
24:08
Speaker 3: in contempt of court.
24:09
Speaker 4: The judge did not allow evidence that there was this
24:13
Speaker 4: string of other attacks where there was this mo of
24:16
Speaker 4: what the perpetrator was doing, approaching victims on foot, smoking
24:21
Speaker 4: in all of the attacks. The judge didn't allow evidence
24:24
Speaker 4: of that into the trial. And if that evidence may
24:27
Speaker 4: have been admitted into the trial, that would have been
24:29
Speaker 4: stronger evidence in my brother's favor, in addition to the
24:33
Speaker 4: alibi evidence that.
24:34
Speaker 1: He had absolutely not to mention if DNA testing had
24:38
Speaker 1: been available to do what it eventually did in this case. So, Karen,
24:43
Speaker 1: what happened next? I mean, I can't imagine what all
24:46
Speaker 1: of this was like for you and your family.
24:49
Speaker 4: Because Corey and I had a couple other brothers still
24:51
Speaker 4: in school at that time. My dad stayed home with
24:54
Speaker 4: them so that they could continue school.
24:56
Speaker 2: So I was the.
24:56
Speaker 4: Only person who actually sat through that one week trial.
25:01
Speaker 4: Was a one week trial, a full week, and I
25:03
Speaker 4: call it the week A hell started that Monday morning
25:06
Speaker 4: and it went all the way through Friday. They came
25:08
Speaker 4: back late Friday afternoon with that verdict.
25:11
Speaker 1: So you were there for the verdict. What was that moment?
25:13
Speaker 2: Like, you know, took her breath away.
25:16
Speaker 4: They were out for a long time that day, and
25:18
Speaker 4: so we were hopeful because he had been offered probation,
25:21
Speaker 4: so we thought, maybe they'd bill hung jury, maybe they'll
25:23
Speaker 4: come back with not guilty.
25:26
Speaker 2: We knew that we.
25:27
Speaker 4: Had a good lawyer who had put on the best
25:29
Speaker 4: case he could with what the judge had allowed him
25:33
Speaker 4: to put into evidence, and that Tim had been a
25:35
Speaker 4: good witness for himself. He was earnest, he was forthcoming,
25:40
Speaker 4: and we had laid it all on the table. But
25:43
Speaker 4: when that guilty verdict came back, it was a gut punch.
25:46
Speaker 3: I remember I was seventeen. I was a freshman at
25:50
Speaker 3: U T Austin, and I remember my mom calling me
25:53
Speaker 3: telling me they convicted Tim, and I was like how.
25:57
Speaker 3: And that weekend we all came home except for Tim,
26:02
Speaker 3: and it was probably two am in the morning, and
26:09
Speaker 3: it was very quiet, except for my mother walking back
26:13
Speaker 3: and forth down the hallway, screaming, swinging her hands back
26:17
Speaker 3: and forth, talking to God saying why did you let
26:21
Speaker 3: them do this to him. You know, he's not guilty,
26:25
Speaker 3: just back and forth, back and forth. And I got
26:29
Speaker 3: up and woke my dad up, and he went to
26:32
Speaker 3: the hallway and he put his arm around her and
26:34
Speaker 3: he said, come on, Ruby, and he walked her to
26:38
Speaker 3: her side of the bed, and I was standing in
26:42
Speaker 3: the hallway just looking at her. She seemed to still
26:46
Speaker 3: be in this trance even when our grandmother passed away.
26:51
Speaker 3: When my dad passed away, I didn't see her in
26:54
Speaker 3: that much pain. And my mother always prayed from day one,
27:00
Speaker 3: let whoever did this, let them come forward. And decades
27:05
Speaker 3: later her prayer came true. The day Tim was sentenced
27:25
Speaker 3: to twenty five years, he was taken into custody and
27:29
Speaker 3: put in the sales in love A County, and there
27:33
Speaker 3: was a man across from him in another sale who
27:36
Speaker 3: heard Tim crying, I didn't do this, Why did you
27:39
Speaker 3: let this happen? Talking to God, and this man, who
27:44
Speaker 3: happened to be Jerry Wayne Johnson said at that point
27:47
Speaker 3: something in him told him one day he was going
27:50
Speaker 3: to have to make it right. We believe him on
27:53
Speaker 3: that because jail records show he was in custody and
27:56
Speaker 3: he was in the same general area as Tim he
28:00
Speaker 3: could have heard him. And then ten years later he
28:03
Speaker 3: actually writes letters to the judge, to the prosecutors, to
28:08
Speaker 3: our defense attorney admitting his guilt and he would do
28:12
Speaker 3: whatever it took to clear Tim's name.
28:16
Speaker 1: It's extraordinary, so Jerry Wayne Johnson. In nineteen ninety five,
28:21
Speaker 1: after the statute of limitations of his nineteen eighty five
28:24
Speaker 1: rape had expired, he wrote to judges and the prosecutor
28:29
Speaker 1: the Lubblic DA we mentioned before, Jim Bob Darnell, as
28:32
Speaker 1: well as to Mike Brown, that he had committed the
28:36
Speaker 1: rape Tim was convicted of. Johnson by this time was
28:39
Speaker 1: serving a life plus ninety ninety years sentence after convictions
28:43
Speaker 1: for two of the other sexual assaults, which were almost
28:46
Speaker 1: identical in terms of characteristics to the one that Tim
28:49
Speaker 1: was convicted of. So ultimately, even though one would think
28:52
Speaker 1: that they would admit their mistake now that the actual
28:54
Speaker 1: perpetrator was confessing, Johnson's letters were not even acknowledged. While
29:00
Speaker 1: Tim remained in prison and was offered parole but only
29:03
Speaker 1: if he would admit to guilt. When he refused twice
29:08
Speaker 1: during his prison term due to his extremely serious asthma condition,
29:12
Speaker 1: he was found unconscious in his cell. Tim was left
29:15
Speaker 1: to suffer with this condition in a place where the
29:17
Speaker 1: condition would only worsen and the symptoms would obviously be
29:21
Speaker 1: exacerbated due to the various deprivations of a Texas prison cell,
29:26
Speaker 1: and ultimately, after thirteen long years in prison, Tim's system
29:32
Speaker 1: just couldn't take it anymore, and on December two, nineteen
29:35
Speaker 1: ninety nine, he died in the Texas prison cell that
29:40
Speaker 1: he never should have set foot in in the first place.
29:44
Speaker 1: I remember when it happened because it sent shockwaves through
29:48
Speaker 1: the innocence community, and I remember feeling a sense of
29:55
Speaker 1: outrage that I had not I had not experienced thaticular
30:01
Speaker 1: emotion before, because it just struck me as so so
30:05
Speaker 1: freaking wrong. You know that I had heard of all
30:08
Speaker 1: sorts of wrongful convictions and all sorts of injustices, but
30:11
Speaker 1: this one, I think hit a lot of us really hard.
30:14
Speaker 1: Still does to this day. And the year after Tim died,
30:19
Speaker 1: Johnson wrote again to a supervising judge. This time the
30:23
Speaker 1: case was moved to a different judge and rejected without comment,
30:27
Speaker 1: but eventually, in May two thousand and seven, Johnson's most
30:30
Speaker 1: recent confession letter reached the Innocence Project of Texas and
30:34
Speaker 1: your family.
30:36
Speaker 3: At the Innocence Project, we received hundreds of letters a month,
30:41
Speaker 3: but rarely do you receive a letter from someone admitting
30:44
Speaker 3: their guilt and wanting to exonerate another party.
30:48
Speaker 1: So the Innisis Project of Texas saw posthumous DNA testing
30:52
Speaker 1: the case, and Lublic prosecutors this time cooperated. So how
30:56
Speaker 1: did all of this take place?
30:58
Speaker 3: A young man by the name of Elliott Blackburn, he
31:00
Speaker 3: was a government reporter with the Lubbock Avalanche Journal, took
31:04
Speaker 3: a call from me about a letter we had received
31:07
Speaker 3: and he said, I'm interested send it to me. And
31:09
Speaker 3: I said, just so you know, this letter is from
31:13
Speaker 3: the person who committed the rapes, and he was mentioned
31:16
Speaker 3: that trial. One week later he wrote a story in
31:19
Speaker 3: the Lubbock Avalanche Journal and the Reporter, as well as
31:24
Speaker 3: the Innocence Project very good attorney named Jeff Blackburn, pushed
31:28
Speaker 3: Matt Pyle, who was the then district attorney at Lubbock,
31:31
Speaker 3: to do DNA testing, and the reporter caught him on
31:34
Speaker 3: a Saturday at a softball game for his son, and
31:38
Speaker 3: he quoted him as saying, we will do whatever it
31:41
Speaker 3: takes to prove Tim Cole's guilt or innocence, and we
31:46
Speaker 3: hadn't heard anything for months, and Elliott, the reporter called
31:51
Speaker 3: and said, Corey, I got some news and it's big.
31:55
Speaker 3: They got the DNA test back and they've been sitting
31:58
Speaker 3: on it for over a month. I called my mother
32:01
Speaker 3: and I said, mother, Elliot's on the phone. They got
32:03
Speaker 3: the DNA test back and he said, missession. The DNA
32:09
Speaker 3: excludes Tim and it matches Jerry Wayne Johnson. And my
32:12
Speaker 3: mother said, well, now you all know when they said
32:17
Speaker 3: they found the rape kit and there was enough to
32:20
Speaker 3: test back in January of two thousand and eight, we
32:23
Speaker 3: actually celebrated then because we knew, so we were a
32:28
Speaker 3: little bit subdued when they're like, Okay, well now you
32:31
Speaker 3: know what I've always known.
32:33
Speaker 1: Get this. The victim in this case, Michelle Mallen courageously
32:38
Speaker 1: speaks and writes about this case to raise awareness about
32:41
Speaker 1: misidentifications and wrong for convictions. A direct quote from her,
32:44
Speaker 1: she said this at Georgetown University Law. I was positive
32:48
Speaker 1: at the time that it was him. I was shocked
32:51
Speaker 1: when I found out it wasn't him. I joined Tim's
32:54
Speaker 1: family and working to exonerate him because it was the
32:56
Speaker 1: right thing to do. Timothy didn't deserve what he got
33:00
Speaker 1: end quote might drop. Wow, Michelle, so much respect for you.
33:06
Speaker 3: So Matt Pyle, the district attorney, was very much well,
33:09
Speaker 3: as far as I'm concerned, he's clear. No no, no no,
33:11
Speaker 3: My mother said, I want his good name back for
33:14
Speaker 3: the annals of Texas history to show that Tim Cole
33:18
Speaker 3: was innocent. So Jeff Blackburn requested a hearing in Lubbock,
33:24
Speaker 3: knowing full well they would deny it because no deceased
33:28
Speaker 3: person had ever had a exoneration hearing Texas, and Jeff
33:34
Speaker 3: Blackburn had used his expertise and knowledge of the Texas
33:39
Speaker 3: Constitution and statues to use a little known procedure called
33:43
Speaker 3: a court of inquiry, which allows you to seek redress
33:47
Speaker 3: in any county in the state of Texas, regardless of
33:51
Speaker 3: your conviction, if you can show just calls that you
33:54
Speaker 3: were wrong. And in the two ninety ninth District Court
33:57
Speaker 3: in Travis County, judge agreed to have a hearing, and
34:02
Speaker 3: we requested that Jerry Wayne Johnson be bench warned to
34:07
Speaker 3: the hearing.
34:08
Speaker 1: So during a two day hearing in February two thousand
34:10
Speaker 1: and nine, Johnson again confessed to the gladness time before
34:13
Speaker 1: a judge, before your family, and before the victim.
34:18
Speaker 3: It was very surreal. I'll take you my brothers, A
34:21
Speaker 3: couple of them were real angry. So there were quite
34:24
Speaker 3: a few bailiffs in the courtroom, so there were gonna
34:26
Speaker 3: be some disorder in the court. And I remember my
34:29
Speaker 3: brother Kevin was sitting literally on my brother Sean because
34:34
Speaker 3: Sean went into the military, because Tim went into the military,
34:38
Speaker 3: and he was going to jump over the bar, and
34:41
Speaker 3: so he had to hold Sean down because he was
34:43
Speaker 3: visibly shaken and emotional. But as my mother said, if
34:47
Speaker 3: I'm not angry, no one can be angry, and no
34:51
Speaker 3: one can be angry for me. She knew that Tim
34:54
Speaker 3: had a greater purpose, and.
34:57
Speaker 1: The greater purpose became clear. And I want to, of course,
35:01
Speaker 1: mentioned the Innocence Project New York joined with the Innocence
35:04
Speaker 1: Project of Texas's co counsel on the case.
35:06
Speaker 4: And let me just say that the Innocence Project of
35:08
Speaker 4: New York found the letter that Tim wrote to them
35:11
Speaker 4: in nineteen ninety two asking for assistance, and returned that
35:15
Speaker 4: letter to my mother.
35:17
Speaker 3: Baryshek I can't say enough about him. Yeah, took time
35:20
Speaker 3: out came and co counseled on Tim because it was
35:25
Speaker 3: so important that we have finally proven in these United
35:30
Speaker 3: States that the innocent do in fact die in prison.
35:34
Speaker 3: But Tim, and many of his letters to us and
35:37
Speaker 3: to my mother, he always said I want three things, vindication, exoneration,
35:43
Speaker 3: and a full pardon. The vindication came with the DNA testing.
35:47
Speaker 3: The exoneration came through the two ninety ninth District Court,
35:51
Speaker 3: who Judge Baart said he was factually and morally innocent
35:57
Speaker 3: and this was the worst miscap marriage of justice he
36:01
Speaker 3: had ever seen in his entire life.
36:03
Speaker 1: And then on March first, twenty ten, Texas Governor Rick
36:06
Speaker 1: Perry pardoned your brother his third wish. And then soon
36:10
Speaker 1: after that, the State of Texas passed the Timothy Cole Act,
36:13
Speaker 1: increasing compensation paid to exanneries after their release and adding
36:17
Speaker 1: compensation for the family of an ex honery cleared after death.
36:21
Speaker 1: Thank you to Rodney Ellis, who was a chair of
36:24
Speaker 1: the board of the Nison's Project of New York, who
36:26
Speaker 1: was instrumental in getting that passed. The state also created
36:29
Speaker 1: the Timothy Cole Advisory Panel on Wramful Convictions in two
36:32
Speaker 1: thousand and nine to study the prevention of wrongful convictions
36:35
Speaker 1: across the stating. Ultimately, a thirteen foot bronze statue of
36:39
Speaker 1: Tim in twenty fourteen was dedicated in Lubbock, depicting young
36:44
Speaker 1: Tim looking toward Texas Tech University Law School, where he
36:47
Speaker 1: almost certainly would have graduated and gone on to do
36:51
Speaker 1: probably incredible things, and in his hands on the statue
36:54
Speaker 1: or two books, the binding of one says, lest we
36:59
Speaker 1: forget The base of the sculpture reads and Justice for
37:02
Speaker 1: All Wow, and Texas Tech University System regents voted in
37:07
Speaker 1: twenty fifteen to posthumously award Tim an honorary degree in
37:11
Speaker 1: law and social Justice. What an incredible ending to the story.
37:15
Speaker 1: Before we get to the closing of the show, is
37:18
Speaker 1: there a call to action for the audience? Is there
37:21
Speaker 1: something that you'd like them to donate to or a
37:23
Speaker 1: website you'd like to go to.
37:25
Speaker 4: All of our work is focused on the Texas Innocence Project,
37:28
Speaker 4: So the incarcerated innocence they need all the help they
37:32
Speaker 4: can get. There are more of them than there are.
37:35
Speaker 2: People to help them. So anything you can do, anything.
37:40
Speaker 4: You feel called to do, to give to the Texas
37:43
Speaker 4: Innocence Project is greatly appreciated. Our family's mission is to
37:48
Speaker 4: continue to work on legislation through the Texas Innocence Project
37:53
Speaker 4: because there's still some things in.
37:54
Speaker 1: The law that need to be changed, and that's Innocence
37:58
Speaker 1: Texas dot Org. That's Innocent Texas dot Org. Will also
38:01
Speaker 1: put a link in our bio for people to donate
38:04
Speaker 1: and get involved. So now, Karen and Corey, we have
38:08
Speaker 1: a tradition here at Wrongful Conviction, which is that the
38:12
Speaker 1: end of our show is called closing Arguments. It works
38:16
Speaker 1: like this. I first of all thank each of you,
38:18
Speaker 1: not just for being here today, but for just being
38:21
Speaker 1: such incredible fighters and courageous humans. I'm proud to know
38:27
Speaker 1: you and honored to have had you here today, So
38:30
Speaker 1: thank you for that. And then I'm going to turn
38:33
Speaker 1: my microphone off, turn my volume on my headphones up
38:36
Speaker 1: just a little bit, kick back in my chair, and
38:39
Speaker 1: leave your mics on, and let's close out the show
38:44
Speaker 1: with any final thoughts you want to share. Who wants
38:48
Speaker 1: to go first, and then hand the mic off to
38:51
Speaker 1: your brother or sister, whoever it is, and then you
38:54
Speaker 1: can take us out into the sunset.
38:56
Speaker 4: Well, I'll go first because my youngest brother is so eloquent.
39:00
Speaker 4: I'll leave the final words for him. Thank you, Jason
39:03
Speaker 4: for having us today and for continuing to elevate these issues.
39:08
Speaker 4: I'm happy to be here to represent my brother and
39:11
Speaker 4: our family and to present our story of his case.
39:16
Speaker 2: But more than.
39:17
Speaker 4: Anything, I'm happy here to just let people know that
39:21
Speaker 4: we as a family stand on the shoulders of my
39:26
Speaker 4: brother and my mother, two wonderful people who were given
39:32
Speaker 4: circumstances beyond their control but made the best of those circumstances,
39:38
Speaker 4: and I think have made a difference not just in
39:40
Speaker 4: the state of Texas, but in the nation in the
39:44
Speaker 4: criminal justice system. And so my final words to the
39:47
Speaker 4: listeners here today is that we still do have one
39:52
Speaker 4: of the best criminal justice systems, but it's just flawed
39:56
Speaker 4: and that's okay. So I ask each your listeners to
40:01
Speaker 4: take a moment and think about what is it you
40:03
Speaker 4: can do to make the system better, because there's always
40:07
Speaker 4: something that each of us can do to make it
40:09
Speaker 4: just a little better.
40:11
Speaker 3: When Tim was in prison, he received back pay from
40:14
Speaker 3: the Army for some fourteen thousand dollars. It was all
40:18
Speaker 3: deposited into his inmate trust fund, and when his belongings
40:24
Speaker 3: came from prison after he had died. It was just
40:28
Speaker 3: a little box and there was a check from the
40:32
Speaker 3: Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Institutional Division, and it was
40:36
Speaker 3: for only thirty six dollars and some change. And some
40:40
Speaker 3: of my siblings were like, what in the world happened
40:43
Speaker 3: all his money?
40:44
Speaker 1: What happened?
40:45
Speaker 3: And I remembered a couple of days had gone by.
40:49
Speaker 3: My mother had organized all of his letters, and I
40:53
Speaker 3: was at her house and I remember her yelling, Corey, Corey,
40:57
Speaker 3: come here, come here. And I went to room. I said,
41:00
Speaker 3: what is it? And she was throwing some papers across
41:05
Speaker 3: her bed, and she said, he gave it away, My
41:09
Speaker 3: baby gave it all away. And there were receipts from
41:14
Speaker 3: the Catholic charities feed the children. He gave the bulk
41:18
Speaker 3: of his money to those in need. He knew he
41:22
Speaker 3: couldn't help himself, but he still had the power to
41:26
Speaker 3: help others. There are many people like Tim who are
41:31
Speaker 3: still in prison waiting to be cleared. In Texas, there
41:35
Speaker 3: are some one hundred plus prisons, more than sixty thousand inmates.
41:41
Speaker 3: The Texas Prosecutor County DA's Association, they say that the
41:47
Speaker 3: amount of innocent people in prison is as high as
41:50
Speaker 3: ten percent. That's a lot of people. We have only
41:54
Speaker 3: scratched the surface. My mother, when she found out that
41:59
Speaker 3: the statue was going to be, a reporter said, Missession,
42:03
Speaker 3: how do you feel? Did you want to suit Lubbock
42:05
Speaker 3: for this? And she said, what I want no man
42:09
Speaker 3: can give, and what I need is for them to
42:12
Speaker 3: never forget. So the baton is on us to make
42:16
Speaker 3: sure people never forget. We want to make sure that
42:19
Speaker 3: this does not happen to another family, that another man,
42:24
Speaker 3: another woman does not go to prison after serving his country,
42:29
Speaker 3: after just doing right, and the entire judicial system turn
42:34
Speaker 3: its back on him because they need a conviction. So
42:39
Speaker 3: we're thankful. We are grateful that he was cleared. But
42:42
Speaker 3: as my mom said, I never would have thought that
42:45
Speaker 3: on July first, nineteen sixty that God would have chose
42:49
Speaker 3: me to be the vessel for change in the criminal
42:53
Speaker 3: justice system in Texas. My mother when she first met Michelle,
42:58
Speaker 3: the rape victim, Michelle was crying on the front steps
43:01
Speaker 3: of my house, and my mother told her stop crying.
43:05
Speaker 3: You have nothing to be sorry for. You were a
43:08
Speaker 3: victim just as tim as they was. And Michelle admired
43:12
Speaker 3: some heart shaped ear rings my mother had and we
43:15
Speaker 3: had dinner at my house for about three hours and
43:19
Speaker 3: it was like we were old friends. And when Michelle
43:21
Speaker 3: was leaving, my mother grabbed her arm and said give
43:25
Speaker 3: me a hand, and she put her heart shaped ear
43:28
Speaker 3: rings in Michelle's hand and she said, oh, Missession, I
43:32
Speaker 3: can't take this. She said, no, no, you give people
43:35
Speaker 3: their flowers while they're alive. So we will try and
43:39
Speaker 3: make sure we can give as many people their flowers
43:41
Speaker 3: in hopes of getting them exonerated, keeping them from going
43:46
Speaker 3: into the criminal justice system as best we can.
43:55
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to ropel Conviction. I'd like to
43:58
Speaker 1: thank our production team Connor Hall, Justin Golden, Jeff Cliburn,
44:02
Speaker 1: and Kevin Wardis, with research by Lyla Robinson. The music
44:05
Speaker 1: in this production was supplied by three time OSCAR nominated
44:08
Speaker 1: composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow us on Instagram
44:12
Speaker 1: at Wrongful Conviction, on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction podcast, and
44:16
Speaker 1: on Twitter at wrong Conviction, as well as at Lava
44:20
Speaker 1: for Good. On all three platforms. You can also follow
44:23
Speaker 1: me on both TikTok and Instagram at It's Jason Flam.
44:27
Speaker 1: Wrongful Conviction is the production of Lava for Good Podcasts
44:30
Speaker 1: and association with Signal Company Number one