STORY: "After nearly 40 years, murder charges dropped against Kerry Max Cook in East Texas case," by reporter Brandi Grissom, published by the Dallas Morning News on June 6, 2016.
PHOTO CAPTION: "Kerry Max Cook (center) appeared in a Smith County courtroom in Tyler on Monday with his lawyer Gary Udashen and former lawyer Paul Nugent. Prosecutors agreed to drop 40-year-old murder charges against Cook in one of the county’s most infamous killings."
GIST: "In a shocking reversal, Smith County prosecutors agreed Monday to throw out murder charges against Kerry Max Cook, a man they’ve insisted for nearly 40 years was guilty of one of the small East Texas county’s most notorious killing. Cook and his lawyers declined to speak with reporters after the court hearing. But the former death row inmate, who has been fighting for decades to clear his name, celebrated outside the courthouse, sharing hugs with his wife, Sandy, his legal team and a group of Texas exonerees who came to support him. Cook was convicted in 1978 in the gruesome slaying of Linda Jo Edwards, a 22-year-old who was found beaten, stabbed and mutilated in her apartment bedroom. From the outset, through three trials that courts said were tainted with prosecutor misconduct, 20 years on death row and even since being released in 1999, Cook has maintained his innocence. His quest to prove it gained worldwide attention. But his saga is not over. Now, at age 60, he can move toward a full exoneration. Prosecutors agreed to drop the murder charges, but they will continue to oppose Cook’s claims of actual innocence, which would allow him to receive compensation for the two decades he spent on death row. “Under no standard was Kerry treated fairly,” said Marc McPeak, who represented Cook from 2008 to 2013. “I don’t know if there is justice at this point, but hopefully there is peace.” Smith County District Attorney Matt Bingham, who declined to comment after the hearing, agreed to drop the murder charges after the latest revelation in the case destroyed one of the few remaining pieces of the state’s case against Cook. James Mayfield, Edwards’ married lover at the time of her death, admitted in an April deposition that he had lied during previous trials when he said that it had been weeks since he had sex with the young woman. He admitted that he and Edwards had sex the day before she was killed – his birthday. Mayfield was at the courthouse Monday. He left the courthouse using a walker and declined to speak with reporters. Mayfield, a former university library dean who worked with Edwards, denied killing her, and prosecutors agreed to give him immunity in exchange for his deposition. But several DNA tests have identified his semen in the panties Edwards wore the night of her death. In addition, Edwards’ roommate, Paula Rudolph, initially told police that it was Mayfield, a man with medium-length silver hair, whom she saw in their apartment the night of the murder. She changed her story at trial and implicated Cook, though he had longer, dark hair at the time. While crucial to the prosecution’s decision, Mayfield’s new testimony was only the most recent piece of the state’s case to fall apart. The 1978 guilty verdict was overturned in 1991 after the state’s highest court tossed out the testimony of the prosecutors’ psychiatrist, who said Cook would be a future danger to society. Prosecutors tried again to convict Cook, but a 1992 trial produced a mistrial after jurors found a stocking tucked inside pants Edwards had been wearing. It was a stocking prosecutors had alleged Cook used to secret away body parts he had carved from his victim. A third trial sent Cook back to death row. But an appeals court threw out that verdict, too, finding prosecutors had engaged in “pervasive” and “egregious” misconduct. Among the offenses, the court said, prosecutors withheld evidence and misrepresented a deal they made with a jailhouse snitch who later admitted he lied when he said Cook confessed to him. And yet prosecutors were still undeterred. In 1999, just days before what would have been his fourth trial, Smith County prosecutors offered him an unusual no-contest plea deal that allowed Cook to be released from prison. Cook didn’t admit the crime but remained guilty in the eyes of the law. Later, Cook learned that DNA tests conducted shortly before the trial showed Mayfield’s DNA on Edwards’ underwear. Since 2012, Cook has been fighting to clear his name entirely. And until Monday, prosecutors appeared determined to fight back. Despite court rulings that eviscerated much of the state’s evidence and multiple DNA tests that failed to produce any of Cook’s biological material, prosecutors maintained that he was guilty. “This is sort of really the quintessential railroading,” McPeak said. Despite Monday’s action, prosecutors are not ready to declare Cook innocent. While they’ve agreed to drop the murder charges, prosecutors will still argue against a claim that Cook has filed seeking a declaration of actual innocence. In the end, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals will decide whether to grant that claim and fully dismiss the charges. If it does, he could be eligible for more than $3 million in compensation from the state, plus health and education benefits, for the 20 years he spent behind bars. Cook has said, though, that his fight has never been about the potential for compensation. Since his release from prison, he has written a book, been the inspiration for a play and spoken around the world about the importance of resilience in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges. He has repeatedly called for accountability for the prosecutors whose misconduct helped secure his conviction and nearly resulted in his execution. “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,” said Kathryn Kase, executive director of the Texas Defender Service, which represents death row inmates."
The entire story can be found at:
http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2016/06/murder-charges-dropped-against-east-texas-man-after-nearly-40-years.html/
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site.
The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.
Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com;
Harold Levy;
Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
