Lawyers create Timothy Cole Memorial Scholarship

In a ceremony scheduled for 3 p.m. today, Texas Tech University School of Law will receive a $100,000 scholarship endowed by four attorneys in memory of a wrongfully convicted man who died in prison. Jeff Blackburn, chief counsel for the Innocence Project of Texas, and Kevin Glasheen, Noe Valles and Chad Inderman, partners in Glasheen, Valles, Inderman & DeHoyos in Lubbock, created the Timothy Cole Memorial Scholarship. A Lubbock jury convicted Cole of aggravated sexual assault in 1986, but another man confessed to the crime in 1995. However, Cole died in prison in 1999. In April, Judge Charlie Baird of Austin’s 299th District Court posthumously exonerated Cole. Calvin Lewis, the Texas Tech law school associate dean for student affairs and diversity, says scholarships will be awarded to students interested in public service who best demonstrate Cole’s perseverance and never-give-up attitude. Cole’s mother, Ruby Session, and other relatives are expected to attend the ceremony, Lewis says.
-- Mary Alice Robbins