STORY: "Kerry Max Cook takes 40-year fight for exoneration back to court," by Brandi Grissom, published by The Dallas Morning News on June 3, 2016.
PHOTO CAPTION: "Kerry Max Cook poses for a photograph with his book, Chasing Justice, at the Courtyard Marriott in Bedford, Texas on Sept. 13, 2015. Cook is in the Dallas area before filing an innocence claim in his long-running murder case."
GIST: For Kerry Max Cook, a former death row inmate fighting to prove his innocence in a 1977 murder that remains among the most infamous in Tyler’s history, Monday will be a nightmarish jaunt down memory lane. Cook, who has been out of prison since 1999, is asking a Tyler court to finally clear his name in the gruesome stabbing death of Linda Jo Edwards. Smith County prosecutors have maintained that Cook is guilty. The former inmate’s quest, they have said, has nothing to do with justice and everything to do with money. His motive, they say, is access to potentially millions of dollars in compensation that could come Cook’s way if a court officially exonerates him. Under Texas’ generous compensation law, Cook could be eligible for more than $3 million, in addition to health and education benefits. Neither prosecutors nor Cook’s lawyers would comment for this story. But documents filed in the case leading up to the hearing provide an early look at what could be explosive new developments in the bizarre 40-year-old case.........“Based on all of this new evidence, it is clear that no rational juror would have convicted Mr. Cook,” his lawyers wrote. In previous court filings, Smith County prosecutors have said the newly discovered DNA does not bolster Cook’s innocence claims or implicate Mayfield. Cook, they have maintained, remains guilty of the crime. The state district judge who oversees the hearing next week will issue recommendations to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state’s highest criminal court. That panel of judges will ultimately decide whether Cook should be exonerated. Cook has said his fight is not about money but about ensuring that prosecutors who oversaw his wrongful conviction are held accountable. In the years since his release, Cook has written a book, been the subject of plays and become an international speaker, telling his story to all who will listen. On Thursday, pop icon Madonna took to Instagram to support the former death row inmate, posting a video with images of Cook flickering past and the words, “40 years on fighting for justice.”"
The entire story can be found at:
http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2016/06/kerry-max-cook-takes-40-year-fight-for-exoneration-back-to-court-with-new-evidence-of-innocence.html/
See Wikipedia entry: "Kerry Max Cook (born 1956) is a former Death Row inmate who was wrongly convicted of a rape and murder he did not commit 1977.[1] He was born in Stuttgart, Germany, and moved to Texas with his family in 1972. Kerry Max Cook served over 20 years in a Texas prison on Death Row. Since his release, Cook has become an activist against the death penalty, speaking across the United States and in Europe. Cook has written a book published by HarperCollins entitled Chasing Justice which details his conviction, the widespread prosecutorial abuses which led to it, and the battle to prove his innocence. Chasing Justice was nominated for the Edgar Award, by Mystery Writers of America. He was awarded a Soros Justice Fellowship to write the book. In an advance blurb for the memoir, former FBI Director and Federal Judge William S. Sessions noted, “Kerry Max Cook has written a brutal but compelling account of his 22 years on Texas’s death row for a murder he did not commit. The book depicts his struggles against all odds to free himself from an inept justice system that would not let go, despite mounting and eventually overwhelming evidence of his innocence. What is perhaps most amazing is the grace with which he now lives his life as a free man, determined to prevent others from suffering the horrors he endured.” Cook is one of six people whose stories were dramatized in the acclaimed play The Exonerated. The play, written by Eric Jensen and Jessica Blank, details how each individual was convicted of murder and sentenced to death, in addition to their exoneration after varying years of imprisonment. Cook often personally participates in the play. The Exonerated has been made into a film, which first aired on the CourtTV cable television station on January 27, 2005. Kerry Cook is portrayed by Aidan Quinn in the film. At the end the film fades from the actor to Cook himself who talks about his experience, his family and his book writing. Although he is out of prison Cook still lives in a perpetually liminal state. Although he has never admitted guilt, he is still considered a convicted murderer in the eyes of Texas law, which adversely affects his daily life. Cook and his lawyer Marc McPeak recently embarked on a new legal endeavor to clear his name: a motion to perform DNA tests on physical evidence found at the murder scene. McPeak also filed a motion to recuse Judge Jack Skeen, the former district attorney who prosecuted Cook’s first two trials, as Skeen would be the one to hear the DNA-testing motion.[2] On April 9, 2012, Administrative Judge John Ovard of Dallas granted Cook's request for DNA testing but denied his plea to move the case out of Smith County, where prosecutors who originally tried his case were found by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to have committed "egregious prosecutorial misconduct."[3][4] Cook's battle to clear his name has been taken up by the online petition site, Change.org."
See Wikipedia entry:"Kerry Max Cook (born 1956) is a former Death Row inmate who was wrongly convicted of a rape and murder he did not commit 1977.[1] He was born in Stuttgart, Germany, and moved to Texas with his family in 1972. Kerry Max Cook served over 20 years in a Texas prison on Death Row. Since his release, Cook has become an activist against the death penalty, speaking across the United States and in Europe. Cook has written a book published by HarperCollins entitled Chasing Justice which details his conviction, the widespread prosecutorial abuses which led to it, and the battle to prove his innocence. Chasing Justice was nominated for the Edgar Award, by Mystery Writers of America. He was awarded a Soros Justice Fellowship to write the book. In an advance blurb for the memoir, former FBI Director and Federal Judge William S. Sessions noted, “Kerry Max Cook has written a brutal but compelling account of his 22 years on Texas’s death row for a murder he did not commit. The book depicts his struggles against all odds to free himself from an inept justice system that would not let go, despite mounting and eventually overwhelming evidence of his innocence. What is perhaps most amazing is the grace with which he now lives his life as a free man, determined to prevent others from suffering the horrors he endured.” Cook is one of six people whose stories were dramatized in the acclaimed play The Exonerated. The play, written by Eric Jensen and Jessica Blank, details how each individual was convicted of murder and sentenced to death, in addition to their exoneration after varying years of imprisonment. Cook often personally participates in the play. The Exonerated has been made into a film, which first aired on the CourtTV cable television station on January 27, 2005. Kerry Cook is portrayed by Aidan Quinn in the film. At the end the film fades from the actor to Cook himself who talks about his experience, his family and his book writing. Although he is out of prison Cook still lives in a perpetually liminal state. Although he has never admitted guilt, he is still considered a convicted murderer in the eyes of Texas law, which adversely affects his daily life. Cook and his lawyer Marc McPeak recently embarked on a new legal endeavor to clear his name: a motion to perform DNA tests on physical evidence found at the murder scene. McPeak also filed a motion to recuse Judge Jack Skeen, the former district attorney who prosecuted Cook’s first two trials, as Skeen would be the one to hear the DNA-testing motion.[2] On April 9, 2012, Administrative Judge John Ovard of Dallas granted Cook's request for DNA testing but denied his plea to move the case out of Smith County, where prosecutors who originally tried his case were found by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to have committed "egregious prosecutorial misconduct."[3][4] Cook's battle to clear his name has been taken up by the online petition site, Change.org."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerry_Max_Cook
See Madonna Instagram video post on Instagram at the link below: madonnaKerry Max Cook served more than 20 years in death row for a crime he didn’t commit. Convicted because he was "living a homosexual lifestyle"! Next week he will finally get a hearing with a new judge in Texas to hear new evidence of Kerry’s innocence, including DNA evidence. Join me and Steven Klein in his long struggle to prove his innocence and clear his name. #RightThisWrong @kerrymaxcook facebook.com/Chasingjustice ❤️#revolutionoflove
https://www.instagram.com/p/BGKUTMgGEWl/
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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;
