FILE - In this March 19, 2010 file photo, members of the Timothy Cole's family stands with his mother, Ruby Session, center, at his grave site at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Fort Worth, Texas after receiving pardon documents from Texas Gov. Rick Perry. The author Fred B. McKinley has started an online petition to persuade Texas Tech University to confer an honorary degree on Cole, who was asked to leave the university after his 1985 arrest on rape charges. Cole asserted his innocence until his death in prison at age 39 in 1999. DNA evidence cleared him 10 years later. (AP Photo/Jeffery Washington)