TCAP Meetings

The first meeting of the Timothy Cole Advisory Panel on Wrongful Convictions (TCAP) was held in Austin on October 13, 2009.  Members were addressed by Cory Session, brother of Tim Cole, and Ruby Session, mother of Tim Cole, who thanked them for their work to prevent wrongful convictions in the state.  Tim Cole was the first Texan to be posthumously exonerated by DNA evidence following a 1985 conviction for rape on Texas Tech’s campus.  He was exonerated through DNA testing and identification of the true perpetrator in 2009, but Cole had died in prison in 1999.  He was pardoned by Governor Perry in March of 2010.

During the first meeting, members indicated interest in pursuing two additional topic areas beyond those laid out by the legislative charge.  First, several members indicated that quality of defense provided to a defendant plays a significant role in wrongful conviction of citizens in our state.  To narrow the scope of this area, members expressed the desire to look specifically at the discovery statute and practices in our state as an area where recommendations could be made.  Second, several members expressed concern over the use of informant evidence in Texas and the possibility that flawed informant testimony could lead to wrongful conviction. 

Following the first meeting, the TCAP panel was divided into workgroups for each area to begin the work of research and writing recommendations. Those areas include eyewitness identification error, recording interrogations, informant evidence, discovery, writs of habeas corpus based on new or changing science, post-conviction DNA testing, and feasibility of establishing an innocence commission.  Workgroup meetings were held on December 7-8, 2009, to further conversation in each area. 

The second full meeting of TCAP was held on January 28, 2010, in Tarrant County.  Members traveled to Ft. Worth to view a demonstration of the county’s electronic discovery system and to speak with prosecutors and defense attorneys who make use of the system.  All prosecutors and defense attorneys who addressed TCAP spoke of the convenience of the system and the ways in which they feel the open discovery policy has improved justice outcomes in the county.

TCAP members convened in Austin for a third full meeting on April 22, 2010, preceded by an innocence commission stakeholder meeting on April 21, 2010.  Members of innocence projects from the four public law schools in Texas discussed their work with representatives from the Governor’s office and prosecutors’ association to brainstorm unique approaches to the future study of proven wrongful convictions in Texas.  Those conversations informed the full meeting the next day, where TCAP members presented their workgroup product to date and began to debate details of the final recommendations.  Members debated recommendations and drafted a final report that will go to the Task Force in Indigent Defense for approval and delivered to Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the Committees of each house of the Legislature with a representative who served on TCAP. 

Between April 21 and August 12, workgroup members met numerous times to discuss drafts of and recommendations for the final report.  The final TCAP meeting was held on August 12, 2010, and the members provided provisional approval of the report, pending edits raised during the meeting. 

Members provided approval of the final report on August 17, 2010, and made the report available for release to the Task Force on Indigent Defense at that time.