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The article I chose to share this week was about a man named Timothy Cole who in 1985 was sentenced to 25 years in prison for the rape of Michele Mallin. But now as it turns out he was wrongfully accused and the real rapist has come clean. But Cole who died in 1999 while serving his time would never get to see his name cleaned. I thought it was really sad how Cole's life was ruined by this even, sure rape is a horrible thing, but it seems the only evidence that they had to put him away was Mallin's incorrect identification of her attacker. It is really scary to think that someone could all of a sudden be accused of a horrible crime, stand by their innocence and still be put away. The part of the story that I found the most shocking was how Mallin said her attacker was smoking like a chimney, but Cole suffered from severe asthma. In my mind that should have put more doubt on Cole being the attacker than it seems to have had. If someone is going to be sentenced with such an extreme punishment, there should be a lot more evidence than just someone saying “he did it.” I also thought it was interesting that the real rapist, Jerry Johnson had been attempting to contact Cole’s family to let them know their son was innocient, but was unable to reach them for over ten years. It doesn’t seem like he was trying very hard if it took this long for them get the message. It is good that Cole’s name has finally been cleared, but hopefully there is more effort put into making sure people are not put in jail for crimes they didn’t commit.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/02/06/texas.exoneration/index.html#cnnSTCOther1
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/02/06/texas.exoneration/index.html#cnnSTCOther1
