USA - Texas. Judge Dismisses Charges Against Former Death Row Inmate Kerry Max Cook

Judge Dismisses Charges Against Former Death Row Inmate. Smith County Judge Jack Carter dismissed murder charges against former Texas death row prisoner Kerry Max Cook, now 60, White, after prosecutors conceded that his due process rights had been violated by the presentation of false testimony from an alternative suspect. This morning, in the 114th District Court of Smith County, district attorney Matt Bingham agreed to not contest Cook’s writ of habeas corpus—and to join with Cook’s attorneys in recommending that his murder conviction be overturned. The decision moves Cook one step closer to exoneration, nearly 40 years after he was originally convicted and sentenced to death for the June 9, 1977 rape, mutilation, and murder of Linda Jo Edwards. Cook’s first conviction in 1978 was overturned on a technicality. The second trial, in 1992, ended in a mistrial. The third two years later led to a second guilty verdict and death sentence, but in 1996 the Court of Criminal Appeals overturned it too, thundering that “prosecutorial and police misconduct has tainted this entire matter from the outset.” Cook was freed on bond in 1997. To avoid a fourth capital trial in 1999, Cook pled no contest to reduced charges and was released from prison. He continued to maintain his innocence. Prosecutors finally agreed to drop the charges against Cook after an alternate suspect in the case, James Mayfield—who had been granted complete immunity from prosecution—admitted that he had lied during Cook's trials. Mayfield, who had an extramarital affair with Edwards, had testified at the trials that he had not had sex with Edwards for weeks before her murder. However, several DNA tests identified semen in Edwards' underwear as Mayfield's, not Cook's. In a deposition in April, Mayfield testified that, in fact, he had sex with Edwards the day before she was killed. That admission also shed new light on the trial testimony of Edwards' roommate, who initially identified Mayfield as the man she saw in the apartment the night of the murder, but later changed her story to implicate Cook. Texas Defender Services executive director Kathryn Kase said: "It is long past time for the state of Texas to admit that it got the wrong man and that it prosecuted the wrong man repeatedly and sought the death penalty against the wrong man repeatedly." Cook continues to pursue a declaration of "actual innocence" that would make him eligible for more than $3 million in compensation from the state of Texas for the two decades he was wrongfully incarcerated on death row. The trial court is expected to rule on that claim later this month and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals will then review the dismissal of charges. Because the dismissal of charges is not yet final, Cook has not yet been added to DPIC's Exoneration List. Cook has written a book published by HarperCollins entitled Chasing Justice which details his conviction, the widespread prosecutorial abuses which led to it, and the battle to prove his innocence. Chasing Justice was nominated for the Edgar Award, by Mystery Writers of America. He was awarded a Soros Justice Fellowship to write the book.