A Plea For Justice: The Timothy Cole Story
"By telling the story as an honest reporter, McKinley has done more to reveal the flaws of theTexassystem than any reform advocate or "movement person" ever could."--Jeff Blackburn, Chief Counsel, Innocence Project of TexasThe book reads like a cliff-hanging suspense novel, but it is a true story that will shake your faith in the criminal justice system while, at the same time, give you renewed hope for the redemptive spirit of human beings.Author Fred B. McKinley, a former criminal investigator with the Louisiana Attorney General s Office, takes the case of a convicted rapist and meticulously dissects it to the point that the reader is able to see the flaws in eyewitness identification, collected state s evidence and human nature that jelled into an amalgam of circumstances that would put an innocent man behind bars.A Plea for Justice: The Timothy Cole Story introduces us to a series of victims, including women who have been raped and a young college student who became the system s scapegoat as he was charged, tried, convicted and incarcerated for a crime he did not commit. McKinley s artful and scientific reporting brilliantly paints a picture of the ultimate victim in this case -- Justice itself.Using his investigatory skills and his talent as a writer, McKinley detailed character studies of the principals: the rape victims, police officers, prosecutors, the judge, the true perpetrator of the crimes and the innocent man and his family. What unfolds is a study of the criminal justice system and how Cole, a veteran and Texas Tech student, would eventually be exonerated, but only after his death. Cole would become the first person in Texas exonerated posthumously.The author, with the use of carefully documented footnotes and appendices, clearly makes the case that those charged with administering justice can be so busy looking for guilt that they are unable to see the truth or, if they do, simply ignore or deny it.In many ways Tim Cole has become the face of the Innocence Project in Texas, and after reading A Plea for Justice, you will understand why.  --Bob Ray Sanders, Vice President/Associate Editor, Fort Worth Star-Telegram