Texas 'rapist' granted state's first posthumous pardon

Wed Mar 3, 2010

BBC News

The governor of the US state of Texas, Rick Perry, has posthumously pardoned a man who had died in jail after being wrongly convicted of rape.

It is the first time Texas has issued a posthumous pardon.

In 1986, Tim Cole was sentenced for the rape of a student. He always maintained he was innocent, right up to his death.

He had spent 13 years in prison when he died of an asthma attack in 1999. His innocence was proved by DNA tests nearly 10 years later.