Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Finds Kerry Max Cook ​“Actually Innocent” 46 Years After His Original Conviction

On June 19, 2024, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals set aside 68-year-old Kerry Max Cook’s con­vic­tion, find­ing him to be ​“actu­al­ly inno­cent.” Describing Mr. Cook’s case as ​“one of the most notable mur­der cas­es of the last half-cen­tu­ry,” the major­i­ty opin­ion explains that ​“when it comes to sol­id sup­port for actu­al inno­cence, this case con­tains it all — uncon­tro­vert­ed Brady vio­la­tions, proof of false tes­ti­mo­ny, admis­sions of per­jury, and new sci­en­tif­ic evi­dence.” The Death Penalty Information Center has deter­mined that Mr. Cook meets the cri­te­ria for inclu­sion on our exon­er­a­tion list, mak­ing him the 198^th per­son exon­er­at­ed after being sen­tenced to death. 

Mr. Cook, who was tried three times, was orig­i­nal­ly sen­tenced to death for the 1977 mur­der of Linda Jo Edwards. His orig­i­nal 1978 con­vic­tion was vacat­ed by the U.S. Supreme Court and remand­ed to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which then reversed the con­vic­tion in 1991. In 1992, a mis­tri­al was declared dur­ing Mr. Cook’s sec­ond tri­al due to the jury’s inabil­i­ty to reach a unan­i­mous ver­dict. Despite the dis­clo­sure of evi­dence pre­vi­ous­ly with­held dur­ing the first tri­al, Mr. Cook was tried a third time, result­ing in a con­vic­tion and death sen­tence in 1994. Once again, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals found Mr. Cook’s right to due process was vio­lat­ed, reversed the con­vic­tion in 1996, and remand­ed the case to the tri­al court. Prior to what would have been his fourth tri­al in 1999, Mr. Cook pled ​“no con­test” in exchange for a 20-year sen­tence and was released from prison for time-served. Following an alter­nate suspect’s recan­ta­tion of his false tes­ti­mo­ny, the tri­al court held hear­ings regard­ing a ​“Stipulation and Settlement Agreement” between the state and Mr. Cook in 2016. On August 16, 2016, the tri­al court rec­om­mend­ed Mr. Cook be grant­ed relief based on the false tes­ti­mo­ny but found that the new evi­dence did not prove his inno­cence. ​“Marked by book­ends of decep­tion span­ning over 40 years,” the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has now found Mr. Cook to be innocent. 

“The State mere­ly has to prove guilt beyond a rea­son­able doubt — which the State could nev­er achieve in this case. Cook should there­fore not have to prove his inno­cence beyond all doubt,” stat­ed the major­i­ty opin­ion, authored by Judge Bert Richardson. ​“After being incar­cer­at­ed on death row for almost twen­ty tor­tur­ous years, we hold that Cook has met the bur­den required for actu­al inno­cence and relief is hereby granted.” 

Mr. Cook’s case was marred by mul­ti­ple acts of pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al and police mis­con­duct, includ­ing the ini­tial fail­ure of the state to dis­close a deal a ​“jail­house snitch” received in exchange for tes­ti­mo­ny – a detail only dis­closed 14 years after tes­ti­mo­ny was pro­vid­ed; the destruc­tion of a human hair con­tain­ing poten­tial­ly excul­pa­to­ry DNA evi­dence, despite a pend­ing DNA test­ing request by the defense; and false and mis­lead­ing tes­ti­mo­ny by Sargent Collard, deemed a fin­ger­print­ing expert, who was pres­sured by the District Attorney. The opin­ion out­lines the numer­ous acts of mis­con­duct in the case, stat­ing that “[s]everal actions of the State go beyond gross neg­li­gence and reach into the realm of inten­tion­al decep­tion against the tribunal.”

In our ongo­ing research, the Death Penalty Information Center has also iden­ti­fied the exon­er­a­tion of David Roeder, who was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death for his role in the rob­bery and mur­der of three peo­ple in Texas. In 1989, pros­e­cu­tors dis­missed all charges against Mr. Roeder, who is the 199^th exon­er­at­ed death-sen­tenced pris­on­er in DPIC’s Innocence Database.