The Tim Cole Act

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Tim Cole died in prison on December 2, 1999 suffering a heart attack while serving a 25 year prison sentence. He had refused parole because that would have required him to admit he was guilty of raping a fellow student at Texas Tech University. In 2007 another man confessed to the crime and Cole was declared innocent.
The Texas lawmakers came up with one of the most generous and supportive programs to compensate those wrongfully convicted: the Tim Cole Act.
The Tim Cole law provides $80,000 for each year of wrongful incarceration and adds free college tuition, and financial and personal counseling. The new law also sets up an investigative panel, the Tim Cole Advisory Panel on Wrongful Convictions.
This law makes Texas one of the most generous states in compensating wrongfully convicted and imprisoned inmates in the country.
While reading this article I can’t help but wonder how many other inmates are or have been wrongfully convicted of a crime or crimes that they did not commit. I would hope that this new law will shed light on some of the flaws in our criminal justice system.
It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent person suffers. (Joshua Dressler, Understanding Criminal Law)