Kerry Max Cook, 68, spent 20 years on death row for a 1977 murder. Now, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has formally declared him innocent, citing stunning allegations of prosecutorial misconduct (article available here).
"This case is riddled with allegations of State misconduct that warrant setting aside Applicant's conviction," the court wrote. "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."
Prosecutors in Smith County, in East Texas, accused Cook of the 1977 rape, murder and mutilation of 21-year-old Edwards. Cook's first conviction in 1978 was overturned. A second trial in 1992 ended in a mistrial and a third in 1994 concluded with a new conviction and death sentence. The Court of Criminal Appeals reversed the second verdict in 1996, stating that misconduct by police and prosecutors had tainted the case from the start.
The Smith County district attorney intended to try Cook a fourth time in 1999 but settled for a plea deal in which Cook was released from prison but his conviction stood.
One of the prosecution's witnesses was a jailhouse snitch who met Cook at the Smith County jail and said Cook confessed to the murder. The witness later recanted his testimony as false, stating: "I lied on him to save myself."
The prosecution also withheld that in exchange for that damning testimony, they had agreed to lower that witness's first-degree murder charge to voluntary manslaughter.
Cook was released from prison in 1997 and Smith County prosecutors set aside his conviction in 2016. The ruling Wednesday, by the state's highest criminal court, formally exonerates him.