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Updated: Texas Man Cleared by DNA Gets Posthumous Degree

An online petition collected more than 12,000 signatures in support of asking Texas Tech University to grant a posthumous degree to Timothy Cole. Friday the board voted to award him the degree.
thepetitionsite.com
An online petition collected more than 12,000 signatures in support of asking Texas Tech University to grant a posthumous degree to Timothy Cole. Friday the board voted to award him the degree.

Update March 10, 2015 9:45 a.m. Texas Tech University's Board of Regents voted Friday to award an honorary degree to Timothy Cole. The Associated Press first reported about this vote on Monday, after the university released a statement on the regents' vote.

Original story Dec. 11, 2014: Timothy Colewas the first person to receive a Texas posthumous pardon for a crime he didn’t commit. That happened in 2010. Now, a Texas resident wants Texas Tech University to grant Cole an honorary degree.

Fred B. McKinley has long been interested in the life of Timothy Cole. Cole is the former Texas TechUniversity student who was wrongfully convicted for rape almost three decades ago. He died in prison before DNA evidence proved his innocence in 2009. Gov. Rick Perry granted Cole the state's first posthumous pardon in 2010.

McKinley, who’s written a book about Cole titled "A Plea for Justice: The Timothy Cole Story," is circulating a petition to grant Cole a posthumous degree from Texas Tech. McKinley’s online petition has more than 12,000 signatures.

"It’s really not a matter of whether they were wrong back in 1985 when all of this happened, it’s just a matter of them correcting it and doing the right thing now," McKinley says, referring to when Texas Tech asked Cole to leave the university after his arrest on rape charges.

In the past, the university has written to McKinley that Cole had not completed the required coursework to receive a posthumous degree.

In a recent statement, Texas Tech said Timothy Cole and his family “continue to have our deepest sympathies. The university has a process in place for the issuance of honorary degrees and we will consistently follow that process."

Meanwhile, State Rep. Ruth McClendon, D-San Antonio, has authored a bill for the 2015 legislative session that would set up a commission to review wrongful convictions in Texas. She authored a similar bill that died last session.

Copyright 2015 KUT 90.5

Veronica Zaragovia reports on state government for KUT. She's reported as a legislative relief news person with the Associated Press in South Dakota and has contributed reporting to NPR, PRI's The World, Here & Now and Latino USA, the Agence France Presse, TIME in Hong Kong and PBS NewsHour, among others. She has two degrees from Columbia University, and has dedicated much of her adult life to traveling, learning languages and drinking iced coffee.