He was released from prison in 1997, and Smith County prosecutors set aside his conviction in 2016.
Judge Bert Richardson wrote in a majority opinion on Wednesday that the murder case was perhaps one of the most notable in the last half century. “Marked by bookends of deception spanning over 40 years, this case has traversed a winding odyssey through our justice system stretching back to 1977,” Richardson wrote.
He said that the state failed to disclose and was not truthful about a favorable deal given to a jailhouse snitch who was the prosecutor's star witness in the first trial. The fact that this informant received favorable treatment didn’t come to light until 14 years after they testified. The snitch claimed they met with Cook who confessed to the murder, but later recanted their testimony, saying, “I lied on him to save myself."
“This case is riddled with allegations of state misconduct that warrant setting aside Applicant’s [Cook] conviction,” Richardson wrote. “And when it comes to solid support for actual innocence, this case contains it all …”
There were uncontroverted Brady violations — meaning the prosecutors improperly withheld evidence from the defense — proof of false testimony, admissions of perjury and new scientific evidence.
Edwards, the victim, deserves justice, Richardson wrote. To him, it’s alarming that for more than four decades some of those charged with pursuing that justice for Edwards have actually obstructed the search for the truth of what happened that night.
“During the past 40 years, not only have memories faded because of the passage of time, witnesses have died and evidence in the care of the state has been inexplicably destroyed,” Richardson wrote. “Linda Jo Edwards deserves better.”“Marked by bookends of deception spanning over 40 years, this case has traversed a winding odyssey through our justice system stretching back to 1977." – majority opinion
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The majority opinion said the court found Cook actually innocent, especially in the context of all other evidence on record. The Smith County District Attorney’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment, and Cook could not be reached.
However, Cook did put out a statement in a news release after the opinion came out. “I was convicted and sentenced to die for a crime committed by another person, in proceedings tainted by deliberate deception and police and prosecutorial misconduct that, to this day, has not been held to account,” Cook said in the news release, according to The Dallas Morning News.
On a June 1977 morning, Edwards’ roommate, Paula Rudolph, discovered her body in their Tyler apartment. Edwards’ body showed repeated blunt force trauma to her face and head and numerous stab wounds. Her sexual organs and face were mutilated. Bloody handprints, smears and signs of skin-to-skin contact were also visible on Edwards’ body. Two murder weapons, a small plaster statue and a pair of scissors, were discovered in the bedroom, and a French carving knife, the third murder weapon, was found in an adjoining closet days later.
There weren’t any identifiable fingerprints found inside the apartment besides Rudolph’s and Edwards’. However, fingerprints belonging to Cook were found on the exterior of the patio sliding door. The state had evidence that Cook and Edwards knew each other, but Cook denied knowing Edwards or having any contact with her. Before her death, Edwards had a longtime affair with James Mayfield, then dean of Learning Resources at Texas Eastern University in Tyler.
In May 1977, Mayfield left his wife without notice and signed a lease with Edwards, only to return to his wife a few days later. For the following three weeks leading up to the time of her murder, Mayfield maintained that he had no sexual contact with Edwards. A day after Mayfield returned to his wife, Edwards tried to kill herself by overdosing on pills in her apartment. She left a suicide note for Mayfield, who found her in an unresponsive state and took her to the hospital. Mayfield destroyed the suicide note despite a police investigation into the attempted suicide.“This opinion creates an opportunity for the victim, Linda Jo Edwards, to finally receive justice." – Kerry Max Cook
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Word eventually got around to other campus staff and faculty about the affair between Mayfield and Edwards, at which point the university president ultimately asked Mayfield to resign. Over the 1977 Memorial Day weekend, Mayfield helped Edwards move into Rudolph’s apartment. Even though Rudolph disapproved of the affair, Mayfield visited Edwards at the apartment three times.
Around 9:30 p.m. on June 9, 1977, Rudolph and Edwards returned home from a night out. About an hour later, Rudolph left to have drinks with some friends at a nearby motel bar, leaving the front and patio doors unlocked. The next time Rudolph saw Edwards, she was dead.
Rudolph returned home between 12:30 and 12:45 a.m., catching sight of a figure standing in Edwards’ room. Thinking it was Mayfield, Rudolph said, “Don’t worry, it’s only me.” She heard the patio sliding door open and close moments later and went to bed around 12:50 a.m. She discovered Edwards’ body about six hours later and called the police.
Cook wasn’t deemed a suspect until a couple of months later, in August 1977, after his fingerprints were found on the sliding patio door. He was convicted of capital murder the following year and sentenced to death. But Richardson’s majority opinion this week notes much of the evidence presented during the original trial was later revealed to be false. For example, Mayfield later admitted to having sex with Edwards days before her death. Mayfield's semen was later found in Edwards' underwear. Additionally, evidence favorable to Cook was withheld by the prosecution.
This first conviction was overturned. A second trial ended in a mistrial in 1992. In 1994, a third trial again concluded with a conviction and death sentence, but the Court of Criminal Appeals overturned that verdict. The Smith County District Attorney’s Office prepared to hold a fourth trial but settled for a plea of "no contest" from Cook. As part of the plea deal, Cook was released from prison but his conviction stood until this week.
Cook's case was one of the inspirations for the 2000 off-Broadway play The Exonerated. Before being adapted into a 2005 film of the same name, the stage play received several awards, including Outstanding New Play by the Outer Critics Circle Awards in 2003.
“It is improbable that Cook had the time to commit the murder, and he doesn’t fit the state’s criminal profile which would have motivated him to commit the murder,” Richardson wrote. “Several actions by the state go beyond gross negligence and reach into the realm of intentional deception against the tribunal.”
He added, “After being incarcerated on death row for almost twenty torturous years, we hold that Cook has met the burden required for actual innocence and relief is hereby granted.”
“This opinion creates an opportunity for the victim, Linda Jo Edwards, to finally receive justice," Cook said in his statement this week. "Today is also a wonderful day for me, my wife, and my son, and for everyone who has believed in me.”
