The following is an archived video story. The text content of that video story is available below for reference. The original video has been deleted and is no longer available.

Wrongfully Convicted Texans Speak Out


Michael Morton's 25 year prison nightmare is unimaginable, that is, unless you've walked in his shoes.

Cory Session has dedicated his life to spread the word about his deceased brother Timothy Cole.

Cole was branded the "Texas Tech Rapist" and made national news for being wrongfully convicted of raping a Texas Tech student in 1986. Cole was convicted to 25 years in prison, and served 13 years before dying of asthma behind bars. After his death the real rapist confessed, and DNA tests proved Cole's innocence. Cole was exonerated in 2009.

"It needs to change because it's wrong, it's just wrong," Session said. "A man went on to live years, and no telling how many other crimes this person may have been responsible for."

Session is now the policy director for the Innocence Project and helped pass a Texas law that provides automatic compensation for anybody wrongfully convicted and later exonerated.

"Stop trying to have these 'I got you moments' in a court room," Session said. "The majority of all wrongful convictions are based on faulty witness identifications and no evidence. In Michael Morton's case he was just the right suspect, he was the husband, and he was the first one you look at."

Session said his brother and Michael Morton are not alone and insists many innocent men and women are like Billy Smith who also spent 20 years behind bars for a crime he never committed despite being convicted of aggravated sexual assault.

"That was a very sad time, a very dark time in my life," Smith said, "(It's) an experience that I will never forget."

The Innocence Project in Texas has exonerated 48 DNA related cases, and four have been in Travis County.

By Cassie Gallo