There is more to this story then this article put out. The girl who was rape described the guy who raped her as a serious chain smoker who smoked the whole time he was with her. He had kidnapped her at knife point and raped her in an abandon parking lot. The real rapist later got caught for doing the exact something to a 15 year old in the same town. He was celled across from Cole and still remembers him crying his innocent.
Cole by the way was not a smoker and he was asthmatic. Plus, 6 different students testified that Cole was studying in his room while they were in the living room playing poker. On top of that, Johnson, the man who actually did it, have been trying to confess to the crime since 1995, after the statue of limitation on the crime had expired. He was continuously ignored by the courts and prosecutors. One judge even through out the confession. Johnson finally was able to contact Cole’s family and they brought it to the media’s attention which brought all this about.
I think what the prosecutor, courts and cops did here should be a crime.