They should clear his name, and the state should render an apology, that's what the family has been fighting for...!
Read on:

Tim's family knew well by the summer of 2007 the speed of justice. They said, over and over, Johnson's letter was proof enough to them Tim had not committed the crime. But they knew they needed stronger proof to clear Tim's name for everyone else.
"I know he's deceased," Cory said in February. "That's why it's just more and more important to us. Everybody wants to hear about someone who got out of prison and they're moving on with their lives. Well, we want to hear about someone who didn't deserve to go to prison."
The DNA test
Johnson met with the Avalanche-Journal a few weeks after his letter came to light. He discussed his memory of the rape and of Tim in a deliberate, matter-of-fact tone. Johnson was critical of the attorneys appointed to handle his own appeals and DNA requests.
He has not explained why he committed the rapes. The girl, he said during an interview at the Price Daniel Unit last June, just happened to be the first to pull into that cold church parking lot in March 1985.
Johnson chuckled when asked what he was doing in the parking lot in the first place. He was working for a rental car company and on sick leave at the time of the attack. He lived and worked nowhere near campus.
But Tim's death and the family's pain troubled him. He wanted to know his discussion of the crime with the media would help the family. He passed along apologies to Tim's mother and to the victim.
"I cryingly regret how I acted against you and I know this apology cannot and will not ever remove the misery and pain my actions caused you to suffer then and now," Johnson wrote about the student he raped. "I just hope and pray that my coming forward and admitting my guilt conveys that I'm truly sorry and seriously remorseful. I am. I wish you well."
The correspondence decried racism, faulty forensic practices in the 1980s and poor legal work he blamed for Tim's treatment and his own failed attempts to prove he was innocent in the rape of a 15-year-old student from 1985. He repeatedly criticized the crime lab work from the era, which he feels should be reviewed.
Lubbock investigators found evidence from Tim's case gathering dust in the county archives last fall. The Department of Public Safety's crime lab confirmed the material could be tested. They took two samples, more than needed, from Johnson in April. In May, they quietly received the results of the DNA testing - Johnson raped the Tech student.
"When this other information came up, we worked hard on that and I hope finally got to the truth of the matter," White said. "Because that's what we was after all the time, was the truth."
When asked if he owed the family an apology, he said he had not yet thought enough about it.
"It's unfortunate the way it happened, but I can't answer that," White said. "You always hope you never get involved in something like this, but things happen."
Darnell, now a sitting district judge for more than a decade, did not know whether to apologize, either.
"I always had a great empathy for young women who were placed in that situation," Darnell said. "But on the other hand I feel really bad about what happened to Timothy Cole. That should never happen to anybody."
Darnell kept his faith in the justice system. He was at a loss, though, of what to say about Tim's case.
"There's not a whole lot you can say to the point of someone's life being taken, knowing that probably wouldn't have happened but for the fact that he He was less certain with what he could legally do for Tim Cole. His office had already done much more than the law required, he reminded a reporter repeatedly. Now he was leery of setting the precedent for an unprecedented legal problem.
"If the guy was alive, that would be easier," Powell said. "There's a process in place for that. But because he died, there's no legal process or remedy in place for that.
"We'll do what we can to clear the guy's name."
Tim's family learned the news confirming what they had long known on a Thursday morning in late June. They filled Ruby's southeast Fort Worth living room with friends and family members who could make the sudden trip to hear the results of the DNA test.
There was quiet relief at first; the satisfaction of knowing that finally, everyone would admit what the family knew about Tim.
But there was a bitterness to the news, too, and echoes of how the family struggled with Tim's death. With the truth out, memories of the trial and Lubbock media coverage of their son and brother, of the investigation that snared Tim, and of the way the case was presented in court bubbled back up.
"The pain, the heartache and the sense of loss - all those things that we've experienced, we don't want for anyone else," Rodney said. "If his death accomplishes that, then his life was not in vain. That's basically our ultimate desire."

Photo is of Jerry Johnson, the real criminal.

Well I think the official exoneration is the first thing that should happen, and on a very public scale.

And I know that so many people abuse the legal system and sue for the most minor details imaginable these days, but there is no way that his being incarcerated didn't contribute to Cole's death in 1999. He died of heart troubles related to asthma...something that sounds pretty treatable to me.

The fact that it was known from the outset that the real assailant was a heavy smoker sure indicates that there were some pretty egregious errors made during Cole's trial. I'm sure the press is trying to exploit the story for all it's worth and making the Lubbock criminal justice system sound as negligent as possible, but it does seem like Cole's family should get some financial consideration if all of this is true...