CNN
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After nearly 47 years, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals this week acquitted Kerry Max Cook of the 1977 murder of Linda Jo Edwards, declaring him innocent of a crime for which he spent nearly 20 years on death row.
“This case is riddled with allegations of state misconduct that warrant reversal of plaintiff’s conviction,” Judge Bert Richardson wrote in the court’s opinion issued Wednesday, noting that evidence favorable to Cook was withheld and that some of the evidence presented at his first trial in 1978 was later shown to be false.
“And when it comes to solid evidence of actual innocence, this case has it all – undisputed Brady violations, evidence of false testimony, admissions of perjury and new scientific evidence.”
The case involves three trials and several appeals, including before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Cook was accused of raping, murdering and mutilating 21-year-old Edwards in Tyler, Texas, in 1977. Her roommate, Paula Rudolph, found her in her bedroom. Cook lived in the same apartment complex as the victim, making him a suspect. A set of fingerprints on Edwards’ sliding patio door matched Cook.
Scientific analyses and expert testimony refuted the claim that the fingerprints found on the patio door were “fresh”.
Cook was sentenced to death in his first trial in 1979, but his conviction was later overturned on appeal. The second trial in 1992 resulted in a miscarriage of justice because the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict. A third trial in 1994 resulted in a new conviction and a death sentence. The Texas Court of Appeals overturned the second verdict in 1996, finding that police and prosecutors had committed misconduct.
In 1999, the results of a DNA test on Edwards’ underwear did not match those of Cook.
Edward Scott Jackson, an inmate at the Smith County Jail and a key witness in Cook’s first trial, testified that Cook told him he killed Edwards. He later recanted his statement, saying, “I lied to him to save myself.” Jackson admitted that he lied to get a reduced sentence.
Before a fourth trial in 1999, the state offered Cook a no contest plea to murder. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison and given credit for time already served, leading to his release, but his conviction stood.
Kerry Cook maintained his innocence the whole time and has now been officially acquitted of Edwards’ murder.
“Kerry has suffered immensely for nearly 50 years and nothing can give him his life back,” one of Cook’s lawyers, Glenn Garber of the Exoneration Initiative, said in a statement to CNN.
“The decision finally and forcefully clears his name while documenting the state’s outrageous and relentless misconduct,” Garber said. “It is important that the people of Tyler, Smith County and the world understand this judicial farce and see it for what it has been all along – a disturbing witch hunt by state actors.”
CNN has reached out for comment to the office of Smith County District Attorney Jacob Putman, who took office in 2019. The appeals court’s ruling this week said the current prosecutors were “in no way responsible for the past events in this case.”
Cook, now 68, is one of at least 199 people who have been wrongfully sentenced to death and acquitted since 1973, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. The death penalty is legal in 27 states.
