(TYLER MORNING TELEGRAPH) - Just days after his conviction for a 1977 murder was thrown out by a visiting judge in Tyler - and days before his hearing seeking a finding of “actual innocence,” Kerry Max Cook has fired his legal team.
Furious at lead attorney Gary Ushaden’s words of appreciation for Smith County District Attorney Matt Bingham’s cooperation in reaching a surprise agreement setting aside Cook’s murder conviction, Cook went on Facebook to slam his lawyers. “Gary, I did not authorize you to make that platform speech praising Matt Bingham and the Smith County District Attorney’s Office in Tyler,” Cook wrote. “I told you the night before as the client no. I was humiliated by it.”
Cook wrote that praising Bingham “publicly exonerates Matt Bingham, (former prosecutor) David Dobbs and (former district attorney, now judge) Jack Skeen.”
“I could go in for pages and pages of everything done over my objections, but the point is, I no longer trust that you are not too tied in a too friendly relationship with Matt Bingham,” Cook wrote. “You have formed a relationship of trust because of so much time with him and you have allowed this to sympathize with his dilemma.” On Thursday, Cook posted the text of a letter he received from Nina Morrison, senior staff attorney with the Innocence Project of New York.
“Unfortunately, it’s clear that Barry and I can’t continue on as your lawyers at this point, and neither can Gary or Bruce, given what you've said are the requirements on your end as the client going forward ( that meetings with Matt Bingham cease).
“Gary Udashen is going to let the judge know today that you have asked us to withdraw as your counsel and we have agreed to do so,” she wrote to him. “He will tell the Judge that we will file a formal motion to withdraw on Monday.”
She added, “We will do everything we can to assist with the transition, and we wish you all the best in your continued quest for exoneration.”
Cook responded to her, also on Facebook.
“There are no new lawyers. Stop saying that to make yourselves look like you just had a difficult client instead of a breach in trust, please,” he posted. “You are leaving me on the goal line because I stood up for what I felt was wrong and neither of you would listen to me as the client.”
The body of Edwards, 21, was found on the morning of June 10, 1977, in her apartment on Old Bullard Road. She had been beaten in the head, stabbed in the throat, chest and back more than 25 times and sexually mutilated.
Cook was implicated in the crime after his fingerprint was found on Edwards’ patio door, but he maintains another man was responsible for the crime - former college dean James Mayfield, with whom Edwards was having an affair. Cook was tried for the crime in 1978, convicted and sentenced to die by a Smith County jury. But the Criminal Court of Appeals overturned the case in 1989 because a psychologist had not read Cook his Miranda warning, thus rendering all information in the psychological interview useless.
He was not freed at the time because he remained under indictment of capital murder, and then-Smith County District Attorney Jack Skeen took two more tries at convicting Cook.
In 1992, Smith County tried the case, but the jury deadlocked and a mistrial was declared.
In 1994, Cook was found guilty of capital murder, but prosecutors used the testimony of a witness who had died. That was reversed by the Court of Criminal Appeals in 1997.
In 1998, as Smith County was moving forward with a fourth trial, Skeen offered Cook a deal that would convict him of murder but would not require him to admit he killed the woman.
In exchange for his plea of no contest, Cook was convicted of murder but sentenced to the time he already served.
He was released from prison and has been challenging the ruling ever since.
On Thursday, he posted a plea for legal help on his Facebook page.
“I have no lawyer and no money to hire one,” he wrote. “Me standing up to what I felt was just wrong to get another ‘no contest’ backroom settlement instead of real exoneration and justice was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I have nothing left but a determination to fight. I need lawyers. Someone help me. Please help me.”
Cook is slated to go back to court on June 29 for that hearing on actual innocence. The case is being heard in the 114th District Court, with visiting Judge Jack Carter, of Texarkana presiding.
Twitter: @tmt_roy
