A couple weeks ago, Andrew Gossett became the 11th person on Texas Death Row to be freed by DNA evidence.
This got me to thinking about the sad story of Kerry Max Cook.
In 1977 in Tyler Texas (Smith County), a young woman named Linda Jo Edwards was murdered. It was a brutal crime, she had been chewed on, and her genitals were mutilated. The town was in outrage. Shortly after, a young man named Kerry Max Cook was arrested for her murder. After all -- he looked the part
Kerry was arrested and a year later he was tried and convicted for the murder of Linda Jo Edwards. This was the start of a long and mind numbing story of absolute injustice in the Texas Criminal Court system.
Kerry's first trial included evidence that is downright insidious. The prosecution made a great deal about the fact that Kerry left a fingerprint on Linda Edwards sliding glass door. The prosecution even made the scientifically impossible claim that they could time date the fingerprint. In other words, the prosecution introduced evidence that the fingerprint had been left on the sliding glass door within 8 to 12 hours of the murder.
This, in laymens terms, is total fucking bullshit.
There is no methodology now and certainly not in 1978 for anybody to say with any kind of certainty that a fingerprint is (X) numbers of hours old.
But the prosecution absolutely HAD to establish the age of the print, because if they didn't, they might have to acknowledge the obvious truth.... They got the wrong guy.
Kerry Cook's fingerprint was on her door because Kerry Cook had been over to Linda Jo Edwards place before. The two had even made out on one occasion. Kerry was a young, directionless man with long stringy black hair in the heart of East Texas... So the Smith County Prosecutors simply ignored other credible evidence as to who killed Linda Jo Edwards....
Evidence like the pre-trial statements of Ms. Edwards' roomate. The roomate who said that Ms. Edwards was having an affair with an older, married man. The roomate, Paula Rudolph, said in initial interviews with the police and in her preliminary statements on the record that she saw a middle-aged man with short silver hair enter their apartment the night Ms. Edwards was murdered. That description matched the description of the man Ms. Edwards was having an affair with.
Oddly enough, when Paula Rudolph testified in court, the middle aged man with the short silver hair became Kerry Max Cook. The young man with the long stringy black hair that ended at the middle of his back.
Add to all of this, the testimony of a jailhouse snitch who testified that Cook told him that he killed Ms. Edwards. If you set aside the fact that the snitch received a shortened sentence it almost sounds reasonable.
Additionally, the prosecution had evidence that <gasp> Kerry Cook watched a violent movie... I'm not at all kidding.
Based on all of this...the "dated" fingerprint, the contradictory statement of Ms. Rudolph and some anecdotal evidence of a homosexual encounter Mr. Cook entered in at some time in his youth, the "violent movie" the prosecution convinced the jury to sentence Kerry Cook to die for a crime he did not commit
If this was the end, it would be profoundly sad. Unfortunatley, this is just the beginning.
Right from the start, Kerry Cook faced challenges in prison. The Texas prison system is brutal and cruel, and it wasn't long before Kerry Cook had the words "good pussy" literally carved into his buttock...a scar he carries with him to this day.
He was beaten....he was raped... he fought every day for his life.. and he was there for something he didn't do.
In 1988, with 11 days to go before the State of Texas would kill Kerry Max Cook, his repeated pleas for help were heard by the United States Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ordered an additional review of the case by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (the highest court in Texas for criminal review matters).
I need to pause here...
Every judge position in the State of Texas is elected. Every.single.one. Accordingly, all nine justices on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals are elected. Draw your own conclusions here. It's a very very conservative group.
They granted Kerry Max Cook a new trial....in Smith County.
This was in the early 1990s. It quickly ended in mistrial.
A third trial began in Smith County in 1994. Seventeen years after Ms. Edwards was murdered. Sixteen years after Kerry Max Cook was sentenced to die for a crime he didn't commit.
The same evidence appeared. The same bogus "dated fingerprints"..the same "gay fear" evidence...the same everything.
Something else happened during the closing arguments... Something that is so bizzare is defies explanation.
During the closing arguments, the prosecution was holding up the jeans Ms. Edwards was wearing the night she was murdered. The prosecutor was shaking the jeans... and unbelievably her panties fell out of the jeans!!! Again, I'm not joking.
The Jury was not told of this significance and they were told to render their verdict based on what they had heard. For a second time, Kerry Max Cook was sentenced to die for a crime he did not commit.
Once again, the unbelievably conservative Court of Criminal Appeals reversed the Smith County court. The pro-prosecutor court said "prosecutorial and police misconduct has tainted this entire matter from the outset." Being a native Texan, I can tell you that this language is extraordinary in a death penalty case where the defendant was twice convicted and sentenced to die by a Texas jury.
When faced with the prospect of a fourth trial and the possibility of a third conviction Kerry Max Cook began weighing his options.
One of his options was an "Alford Plea". An Alford plea is not a "no contest" plea, and it's not a plea of guilt. It's a constitutionally guaranteed admission of no guilt in exchange for a lighter sentence from the State.
Kerry entered an Alford Plea...admitting no guilt... and received time served.
However.. It's still a conviction. Kerry Cook is to this day and for always a convicted murderer. The upside to all of this is that Kerry Cook walked out of a Texas Courtroom a free man.
There was still that small issue of the panties that fell out of Ms. Edwards' jeans during closing arguments. The Smith County prosecutors had those panties DNA tested. Surprise surprise, the DNA evidence on those panties strongly suggested that the older gentleman Ms. Edwards' roomate originally said was in the room committed the crime.
The Smith County prosecutors KNEW THIS when they were prepared to try Kerry Cook for his third conviction. They KNEW THIS when they accepted Kerry Cook's Alford Plea.
The DNA evidence of the crime 100% exonerates Kerry Max Cook. He didn't kill Linda Jo Edwards. He didn't rape her. He didn't chew on her body. He didn't mutilate her vagina. He's not a monster the Smith County Prosecutor said he was for TWENTY YEARS.
After he was released, Kerry Max Cook was profiled in the Broadway Play "The Exonerated" -- which also turned into a CourtTV movie. He married and fathered a son, Kerry Justice Cook. And he tried to put it all behind him.
The scars remain. Both the physical and the emotional. Kerry Cook lived in a closet for twenty years. He was beaten, raped, and forced into a subservient life. You don't just bounce back from that.
I befriended Kerry Cook while I was in law school. I don't really recall how it is that I got in touch with him, but one day I found myself helping him move into his rented home in Texas. I had lunch with him and his wife and his son. It was gut wrenching.. There's no way to explain how much you want to turn back the clock when you're talking to a man who lost 20 years of his life to "justice".
Kerry just finished his book. I'm writing this diary because the story of Kerry Max Cook is one of the most moving stories I've ever heard in my entire life. And I'm writing this story because I consider Kerry Cook a friend. I haven't done this story justice... if this is something interesting to you, then please...buy Kerry's book.
LINK
The system of death in America is shameful. Please share Kerry's story with your friends and family.