Today, the city of Lubbock, Texas, dedicated a 13-foot tall bronze statue of a man who died in prison rather than confess to a crime he didn’t commit as a reminder to the community that justice is fallible.
Tim Cole, who went to prison for a 1985 rape and died in 1997 at age 39 from a heart ailment, was offered parole in exchange for a confession. He refused. At today’s dedication ceremony, a former Lubbock city council member said, “Tim had the integrity to say, ‘I won’t confess to something I didn’t do.’ He refused to take his freedom on the cheap.”
http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/17/us/texas-exonerated-rape-statue/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
This case, in many respects, is a near copy of Seattle’s notorious Steve Titus case. Titus was convicted of a 1980 rape he didn’t commit because dishonest Port of Seattle cops ignored exculpatory information, fabricated evidence, and manipulated the victim into identifying Titus as the rapist. Titus’ conviction was set aside in large part because of Seattle Times investigative reporting that won a Pulitzer Prize. Titus spent little time in jail, but lost his job, and ultimately his life — he died of a heart attack at age 39. His children shared a $2 million lawsuit settlement from the Port of Seattle.
Most likely, Steve Titus is now all but forgotten in our community. He shouldn’t be. The Port of Seattle should put up a statue of Titus in the airport terminal building as a reminder to their police officers, and all of us, that justice is fallible. If Lubbock can do it, so can Seattle.