Texas Court Declares Former Death Row Inmate Innocent of Murder 46 Years Ago: ‘Riddled With Allegations of State Misconduct’

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has declared former death row inmate Kerry Max Cook innocent of the 1977 murder of Linda Jo Edwards.

Knewz.com has learned that Cook was formally exonerated by the state's highest criminal court on Wednesday, June 19.

The prosecutors in Smith County, East Texas, accused Cook of the rape , murder, and mutilation of a 21-year-old woman in 1977, and he was convicted of the same in 1978.

Edwards, who worked as a secretary in the city of Tyler, Texas, was found mutilated on the floor of her apartment.

The conviction was subsequently overturned and he was tried for a second time in 1992, although the second attempt was declared a mistrial.

Cook stood trial for a third time in 1994, concluding with a new conviction and death sentence. However, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reversed the verdict on the grounds of alleged misconduct by police and prosecutors that had "tainted the case from the start," per The Texas Tribune .

In 1999, Jack Skeen Jr., the Smith County District Attorney at the time, tried to make Cook stand trial for a fourth time but instead settled for a plea deal, as part of which he was released from prison following a sentence of time served. However, his conviction was still counted as valid.

This means that until Wednesday's declaration, Cook had been classified as a murderer by the state of Texas for around 47 years for a crime he did not commit.

According to The Texas Tribune , Judge Bert Richardson wrote in the majority opinion on Wednesday: "This case is riddled with allegations of State misconduct that warrant setting aside Applicant’s conviction."

"And 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."

"It is alarming that for more than four decades some of those charged with pursuing that justice for Linda have actually obstructed the search for the truth of what really happened that night," the filed Court opinion read, per local news outlet KLTV .

The state’s highest criminal court also brought significant allegations of prosecutorial misconduct on Wednesday, including the fact that the prosecution illegally withheld favorable evidence from Cook’s defense team during the 1978 trial.

Furthermore, the court also found much of the evidence presented by the prosecution to be false.

The witnesses called by the prosecution at the time included a "jailhouse snitch" who supposedly met Cook at the Smith County jail and testified that Cook had confessed to the murder of Edwards.

However, the witness later confessed that he had given false testimony to save himself. The prosecution had lowered the witness's first-degree murder charge to voluntary manslaughter in return for the testimony, a fact the prosecutors never revealed.

Cook had spent around two decades on death row for a crime he did not commit. He spoke to KLTV back in 2016 and further emphasized his innocence in the interview:

"I have proclaimed my absolute innocence since the day of my arrest. This has never changed. And it will not change now."

In their recent report, KLTV cited a statement from Michael Morton, who wrongfully served time from 1986 to 2011 for the murder of his wife, regarding Cook's exoneration.

"In my [case] it was a homicide , a murder. That meant while I was inside, the real killer, [like] in every one of these cases, the real perpetrator is still out there," Morton said via the outlet.