FORT WORTH, TX (WACH / Fox News)—If you ask any defense attorney, they will tell you they have never defended a guilty person, but for a man who served nearly a decade and a half for rape, it turned out to be true.

In 1985, Army Veteran Timothy Cole was convicted and sentenced to 25 years for the rape of a Texas Tech University student.  For the next 14 years, Cole fought his conviction and prove his innocence.  Cole’s fight ended in 1999 when he died in prison of an asthma attack.

According to WDFW television, in 2007, The Innocence Project of Texas began to investigate the case, and with DNA not only successfully proved Cole’s innocence, but secured the first posthumous exoneration of a Texas inmate.  The Innocence Project found that eyewitness had made a misidentification in the case, and proved that the scientific practices were inaccurate.  They eventually found another suspect, who according to the group, confessed to the crime.

As a result of the case, Texas has passed the Timothy Cole Act, which increases compensation paid to those who are wrongfully convicted and serve time, to $80,000 per year served.

The Innocence Project also created the Timothy Cole Advisor Panel on Wrongful Convictions to study the prevention of wrongful convictions.  Also as a result of the case, many police departments are changing the way the conduct line-ups.

Cole has now been honored in Fort Worth with a memorial plaque at the Mount Olivet Cemetery, where he rests.  This is the first historical marker in the nation to memorialize someone wrongfully convicted.

Do you think wrongful convictions are commonplace in the criminal justice system, or few and far between?  What about the old saying that it is better to allow 10 guilty men go free than to convict one innocent one?  Leave us a message here or on our Facebook page.