Timothy Cole, Who Died in Prison in 1999, Exonerated Today in Texas Rape

In what is apparently the first posthumous DNA exoneration in the history of Texas, a state court judge today ordered that Timothy Cole's rape conviction should be reversed and removed from his record.

Convicted in 1986 of raping a student at Texas Tech University the previous year, he died in jail of asthma complications in 1999 at age 38 or 39 while serving a 25-year sentence, according to the Associated Press.

He was cleared when DNA testing in 2008 implicated convicted rapist Jerry Wayne Johnson, who is serving time in unrelated crimes. Johnson, who also confessed to the crime in a series of letters starting in 1995, according to the Austin American-Statesman, has apologized to the victim and her family.

"Insisting on his innocence, Cole refused a plea bargain that would have kept him out prison for the 1985 rape. He also refused to admit to the crime to win parole while serving a 25-year sentence," the newspaper writes.

The Innocence Project says the posthumous exoneration is the first, based on DNA evidence, in Texas history.

Earlier coverage:

Fort Worth Star Telegram: "Mother pleads in court to have son posthumously exonerated"

Austin American-Statesman: "Witness points to police slip-ups"