Texas Judge Dismisses Charges Against Former Death Row Inmate

A judge dis­missed mur­der charges against for­mer Texas death row pris­on­er Kerry Max Cook on June 6, after pros­e­cu­tors con­ced­ed that his due process rights had been vio­lat­ed by the pre­sen­ta­tion of false tes­ti­mo­ny from an alter­na­tive sus­pect. The deci­sion moves Cook one step clos­er to exon­er­a­tion, near­ly 40 years after he was orig­i­nal­ly con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death for the 1977 mur­der of Linda Jo Edwards. 

Smith County pros­e­cu­tors tried Cook three times, twice win­ning con­vic­tions and death sen­tences. After Smith’s sec­ond tri­al end­ed in a hung jury, pros­e­cu­tors with­held evi­dence and mis­rep­re­sent­ed a deal they had made with a jail­house infor­mant who false­ly tes­ti­fied in the third tri­al that Cook had con­fessed to him. An appeals court over­turned that con­vic­tion and death sen­tence for what it called ​“per­va­sive” and ​“egre­gious” prosecutorial misconduct. 

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. 

Mark McPeak, who rep­re­sent­ed Cook dur­ing an ear­li­er stage of his case, described his pri­or tri­als as ​“the quin­tes­sen­tial rail­road­ing.” 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.