1. Judge recommends against ruling Kerry Max Cook ‘actually innocent’

Kerry Max Cook, the man convicted of the 1977 sexual assault, murder and mutilation of a Tyler woman has filed a new motion in the Smith County District Clerk’s Office in hopes of clearing his name. 

Cook, along with attorneys from the Innocence Project, also filed a motion to recuse 114th District Judge Christi Kennedy and have the case moved out of Smith County.

Cook spent 20 years on death row and twice had those death sentences overturned, but in 1999, the day before his fourth capital murder trial, Cook entered a no contest plea to the charges, thus convicting him once again of the crime. 

Cook has said he was repeatedly sexually assaulted in prison and stabbed and wanted the case to be over. 

But Cook wants his name cleared and states there is evidence that proves he was not the one who killed Linda Jo Edwards.

The motion to recuse states Kennedy cannot be objective because of her ties to 241st District Judge Jack Skeen, who presided over two of Cook’s cases, and with the Smith County District Attorney’s Office, where her late husband, Richard, served as an assistant district attorney under A.D. Clark, who was the first DA to prosecute the case. 

Tyler Paper is following this case and will post additional details as they become available.