FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) - Gov. Rick Perry has given pardon
documents to the family of a man who died in prison after serving
13 years for a rape he didn't commit.
Perry met Friday in Fort Worth with the family of Timothy Cole,
nearly three weeks after the governer granted the state's first
posthumous pardon.
DNA evidence cleared Cole in 2008, nine years after he died at
age 39 in prison of asthma complications.
Perry granted the pardon after the state attorney general
clarified the law in January and the Innocence Project of Texas
submitted a formal pardon request to the Board of Pardons and
Paroles.
Cole's mother, Ruby Session, said she hopes her son's ordeal
will help effect change and improvement in the Texas criminal
justice system.
After meeting with Perry, the family headed to a cemetary to
visit Cole's grave.