TYLER, Texas — Editor's Note: The above video aired on June 20, 2024.
Kerry Max Cook, who was found innocent in June of a 1977 Tyler murder, is seeking to dismiss the original indictment to stop any further prosecution against him.
On Sept. 13, Cook's lawyer filed a request to dismiss the indictment against a person who is actually innocent after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals declared he was innocent of the 1977 rape and murder of 21-year-old Linda Jo Edwards.
In June, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals found instances of prosecutorial misconduct, proof of false testimony, admissions of perjury and new scientific evidence, according to reporting from the Texas Tribune. The ruling fully exonerated Cook.
In the document, Cook said the CCA found that Smith County could never prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.
"The indictment against him can therefore have no purpose but to continue to intentionally harass and abuse an innocent man," the document reads.
The motion claims that the Smith County District Attorney's Office has not requested a dismissal of Cook's indictment as it should have. Cook's lawyer says it is now the court's responsibility to "end to this grotesque charade."
Misconduct from Smith County and the delays its misconduct has made it impossible for Cook to receive a fair and speedy trial. Because of his wrongful conviction, his lawyer writes that Cook experienced " extreme physical abuse and psychological trauma by other inmates" while on death row, according to the filing.
Cook believes the indictment against him remains an "intolerable justice."
Cook, now 68, became an advocate against the death penalty after spending roughly 20 years on death row. His conviction was set aside in 2016, according to the Tribune.
His first conviction in 1978 was overturned, a second trial in 1992 was a mistrial and a third trial in 1994 concluded with a new conviction and death sentence, according to the Texas Tribune.
The Court of Criminal Appeals reversed the second verdict in 1996 because of police misconduct and prosecutors had tainted the case from the start. The Smith County district attorney planned to try Cook a fourth time in 1999, but a plea deal in which Cook was released from prison but his conviction stood was accepted, the Tribune said.