Cory Session speaks during a ceremony to unveil a Timothy Cole memorial in Lubbock, Texas, Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014. (AP Photo/Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, Zach Long)
Our newspaper editorialized today in behalf of HB 48, which would create a commission to analyze wrongful convictions with a goal of fixing problems that caused them.
The House-passed bill was heard this morning in the Senate State Affairs Committee, which might have been a problem (for reasons I’ll explain later). It passed out of committee, 6-0, for consideration by the full Senate next week.
The vote came after testimony by a number of exonerees whose names you might be familiar with by now. Charles Chatman. Billy Smith. Cornelius Dupree. Each spent decades in prison for another person’s crime. They told lawmakers that the proposed commission would not only help avoid miscarriage of justice, but it would make sure cops focus on getting the real bad guys off the street.
If there was a star witness, it might have been Michele Mallin, a one-time Texas Tech student who was raped in 1985. Army veteran Timothy Cole, another Tech student, was pinned with the crime despite proclaiming his innocence. He was sentenced to prison for 25 years, but he died there from as asthma attack after 13 years. DNA tests proved Cole innocent a decade later, and Gov. Rick Perry gave him a posthumous pardon.
