AUSTIN, Texas (KLTV) – Kerry Max Cook, a man who spent 20 years on death row for the 1977 murder of a Tyler woman, was acquitted of his conviction in 2016. On Wednesday, Cook, now 68, was officially declared innocent.
According to the Texas Tribune, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals relied on “shocking allegations of prosecutorial misconduct” in its decision to declare Cook innocent on Wednesday. Cook was released in 1997 before his conviction was overturned in 2016, although the man was not found “actually innocent” in the latest decision either.
“This case is replete with allegations of state misconduct that warrant reversal of plaintiff’s conviction,” the majority opinion said Wednesday. “And when it comes to solid evidence of actual innocence, this case contains it all — undisputed Brady violations, evidence of false testimony, admissions of perjury, and new scientific evidence.”
Cook was accused of sexually abusing and murdering Linda Jo Edwards, a 21-year-old secretary from Tyler who was found mutilated on the floor of her apartment in 1977. Cook awaited execution for 20 years and was tried several times before finally pleading no contest in 1999 in exchange for time served.
Cook was represented by exonerated people such as Michael Morton, who was wrongfully imprisoned for the murder of his wife from 1986 to 2011. The most problematic issue in Morton’s eyes is the freedom of the real murderer, he said.
“In my case, it was a manslaughter, a murder. That meant that the real killer, as in all of these cases, was still at large while I was in prison,” Morton said.
In 2017, Cook requested an additional jury trial because he wanted the state’s actions to be judged by “ordinary people.”
“He is not asking powerful people and people in positions of authority, police officers and prosecutors who work with them to make a decision about whether he was treated fairly or not,” said his lawyer Anand Swaminathan. “He will ask ordinary people to make that decision and he is confident that they will make the right decision.”
In its report on Wednesday’s appeal decision, the Texas Tribune noted Cook’s years-long commitment to opposing the death penalty.
Related:
+Former death row inmate files civil suit against law enforcement in 1977 murder case
+Kerry Max Cook’s conviction overturned, but still not “actually innocent”
+Man convicted of Tyler murder in 1970s seeks to clear his name
+SPECIAL REPORT: The trial of Kerry Max Cook
+Former death row inmate expresses different opinion on Kerry Max Cook
+Man convicted of Tyler murder in 1970s seeks to clear his name
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