Texas death row inmate exonerated nearly 50 years after being sentenced for neighbour's murder

A Texas man who spent nearly two decades on death row has been exonerated - almost 47 years and three trials since he was sentenced for the murder and rape of his neighbor. Kerry Max Cook , now 68, was convicted of murdering Linda Jo Edwards, 21, back in 1978.

However, last Wednesday, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals declared him "actually innocent after evidence was withheld in his first trial in 1978 and some of the expert testimony was later proven to be false. "This case is riddled with allegations of State misconduct that warrant setting aside Applicant's conviction," Justice Bert Richardson wrote in the court's opinion.

"And when it comes to solid support for actual innocence, this case contains it all - uncontroverted Brady violations, proof of fake testimony, admissions of perjury, and new scientific evidence."

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Edwards was found brutally murdered and mutilated in her bedroom in an apartment complex in Tyler, Texas in 1977. Cook lived in the same complex, and police claimed a set of fingerprints on Edwards' sliding patio door matched those of Cook, reports The Mail Online.

The star witness at that first trial in 1978, Edward Scott Jackson, also testified that Cook told him he killed Edwards. He was sentenced to death in 1979, and during his time on death row, Cook was stabbed and raped by other inmates, Texas Monthly reports.

But Jackson later recanted his testimony, saying, "I lied to save myself." An expert witness, a sergeant recognized as a fingerprinting specialist, also confessed to being coerced by the District Attorney's office into asserting that the fingerprints were fresh, as reported by the Death Penalty Information Center.

Later, scientific analysis and expert testimony would disprove this claim. It was also later revealed that during the investigation, police had destroyed human hair, which could have potentially held evidence that could exonerate the accused.

In his opinion on Wednesday, Richardson characterized these actions as going "beyond gross negligence" and entering "into the realm of the intentional deception against the tribunal." Cook's conviction was subsequently overturned in 1991, and a second trial a year later resulted in a hung jury.

A third trial in 1994 concluded with a new conviction and death sentence. However, once again, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals determined that Cook's due process rights had been violated, reversed the conviction in 1996, and sent the case back to the trial court.

Cook was released from prison the following year. By 1999, DNA testing on Edwards' underwear revealed that Cook was not a match.

The DNA instead matched Edwards' boyfriend at the time, James Mayfield, who was married and twice her age, according to Texas Monthly. Mayfield had also provided false information about his location on the night of Edwards' murder.

Before a fourth trial in 1999, Cook agreed to a 'no contest' plea deal in which he would be sentenced to 20 years in prison and given time served - but the conviction would stand. However, Cook continued to fight for exoneration and became an outspoken critic of the death penalty, penning a book titled Chasing Justice. His story also inspired a hit play, The Exonerated.

By August 2016, the trial court recommended Cook be granted relief based on the false testimony, but found that the new evidence did not prove innocence. Judge Richardson, however, disagreed with the ruling in his opinion on Wednesday,.

"The State merely has to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt - which the State could never achieve in this case," he wrote. "Cook should therefore not have to prove his innocence beyond all doubt. After being incarcerated on death row for almost 20 torturous years, we hold that Cook has met the burden required for actual innocence, and relief is hereby granted. "

Kerry and his attorneys celebrated the news. "Kerry suffered immensely for nearly 50 years and nothing can give him his life back," attorney Glenn Garber, of the Exoneration Initiative, told CNN.

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"The decision finally and forcefully clears his name, and at the same time chronicles the state's outrageous and unrelenting misconduct," he continued." It is important for the people of Tyler, Smith County, and the world to understand what it was all along - a disturbing witch hunt by state actors. "

The opinion from the appeals court, though, noted it did not hold the current prosecutors "in any way responsible for the past events in this case." But the good news for Cook came just as he suffered a stroke, with doctors informing him that the arteries were 90 percent blocked.

"They're performing life-threatening surgery,' he told Texas Monthly. "I hope I come out of it. I was praying, "I hope they rule and set me free,"' he continued. "Because if I die, at least I want to be able to know that I won."

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