Judge Denies Motion to Move 30-Year-Old Murder Case
Update, May 15, 9 p.m.:
Kerry Max Cook's fight to legally prove his innocence in the 1977 murder of Linda Jo Edwards will stay in Smith County for now, after a judge on Monday denied a second request to move the case out of the jurisdiction where courts have ruled that prosecutors in the case had committed "egregious" misconduct.
Administrative Judge John Ovard signed an order denying Cook's request, a move the former death-row-inmate-turned-author and motivational speaker said could doom his chances for a fair hearing.
"What are they afraid of?" Cook asked. "We are just asking ...
Comments (5)
Lisa Buentello via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Give this man his name and his life back.
gypsy314 ne
Even DNA can show up by what means.
Anyone but Obama and liar democrats!
Kerry Cook
I have a few things I'd like to say regarding the recent setback that was the recent decision of Dallas Administrative Judge John Ovard's decision to allow Smith County Judge Christi Kennedy to keep my case in Smith County.
My legal arguments before Administrative Judge John Ovard of Dallas asking that Smith County Judge Christi Kennedy be recused and allow a neutral Judge from outside Smith Countyto be appointed were simple. Kniatt v. State (Tex. App. - Waco 2007); Kemp v. State (Tex. Crim. App. 1992), reads a Judge should be recused if a “a reasonable member of the public at large, knowing all the facts . . . would have a reasonable doubt that the judge is actually impartial….”
This is what a “reasonable member of the public at large” would have to view in order to make that determination, combined with the wealth of other knowledge in the public domain documenting my 35 year old pursuit for justice from Smith County. For your consideration:
1). Judge Kennedy has represented Smith County against 1983 civil rights violations. In other words, she was the County’s attorney and defended Smith County if and when anyone accused members of the Smith County power structure of any wrong-doing;
2). Former Smith County District Attorney Jack Skeen - - now a Smith County District Judge and colleague of Judge Kennedy - - has contributed repeatedly to Kennedy’s campaign as a District Judge. Judge Skeen later swore Judge Kennedy in as a Judge.
Who is Jack Skeen? Judge Jack Skeen is the first-cousin to A.D. Clark, III, or the original 1977-78 Smith County District Attorney who it’s been proven manufactured the entire case against me (including the arrest warrant) that caused the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to eventually write in 1996, “Police and prosecutorial misconduct has tainted this entire matter from the outset. Little confidence can be placed in the trials…” What CCA Judge Stephen Mansfield in writing for the Majority didn’t say was that Jack Skeen replicated and used the exact same fraudulent case of A.D. Clark, III in nearly three more trials, sending me back to death on based on his first-cousin’s lies in 1994.
A.D. Cark, III works for the Texas Attorney General’s Office and has for over 20 years. A.D. Clark’s wife is a Smith County District Judge. Judge Christi Kennedy sits between Judge Jack Skeen and Judge Carole Clark on the bench in Tyler.
3). Judge Christi Kennedy’s husband. Richard, worked for Criminal District Attorney Jack Skeen as an assistant Smith County District Attorney in 1994 when Jack Skeen was retrying me on the “fraudulent evidence” Jack Skeen knew to be false, sending me back to death row a second time based on it. Jack Skeen arguing this same phony “evidence” gained through criminal acts and in violations of the law as true all the way up to the United State’s Supreme Court in an attempt to get my Stay of Execution lifted and have me executed.
4). Former 114th Smith County Judge Cynthia Kent, arguably the worst Judge in the history of Texas because of her draconian, tyrannical oppression of a defendant’s rights, is Judge Christi Kennedy’s mentor, predecessor of the 114.th While Judge Cynthia Kent improperly convened a Smith County Grand Jury and had me subpoenaed to appear and demand that I prove who raped and killed Linda Edwards, what Judge Kent didn’t tell the public is that the handpicked jury foreman for the 1999 Grand jury was not only Judge Kent’s very own husband’s law partner, but the jury foreman was also a Smith County District Attorney in the ‘80’s working to ensure my execution.
Judge Kent is Judge Christi Kennedy’s mentor. Cynthia Kent continues to wield considerable power in Smith County as a “mediator.”
5). Just about everyone involved in the conspiracy to lie, cheat, obstruct justice and cover up the biggest criminal justice scandal in Texas history are all over Christi Kennedy’s Facebook as her “friends.”
I ask you, as a representative of the pubic at large, just as I had asked Administrative Judge John Ovard, of Dallas would you, as “a reasonable member of the public at large, knowing all the facts . . . have a reasonable doubt that the judge (Kennedy) is actually impartial….”?
I met this legal requirement overwhelmingly. Judge John Ovard applied an impossible, unreachable legal standard to prevent Smith County Judge Christi Kennedy from being removed from my case.
It is a decision that cripples any chance of obtaining a fair and impartial Hearing on any subsequent Writ based on proving my actual innocence. It is impossible for Smith County Judge Christi Kennedy to find me innocent without finding members within the current and past Smith County power structure guilty of engaging in a conspiracy to convict me.
In refusing to step aside and allow a neutral Judge from Outside Smith County to hear my Writ of Innocence, Judge Christi Kennedy has herself embraced and joined the Smith County conspiracy, along with current Smith County District Attorney Matt Bingham. Together they will make certain the public never know the truth of what happened to Linda Jo Edwards and how Kerry Max Cook was used as a scapegoat, buried beneath an unassailable, unimaginable mountain of prosecutorial malfeasance, all of which was designed to keep a lie believable and alive.....
Linda of Texas Babineaux
30 years? What is the purpose of not hearing the case after 30 years? Who is afraid of the truth? Possible probability of innocence. Too many questions, and not enough DA accountability. Sounds like a reasonable request if there is not bias. Look how many prisoners have been proven innocent by the Innocence Project. Also sounds like a lot of conflict of interest and the "good-ol-boy" network. As one of the people, I say give him a chance after paying 30 years for a crime he may be innocent of. The ulturnative is to keep him in prison until he dies which is crualty - not justice.
frank garcia
To hell with the law suits, start prosecuting crooked- arrogant cops & DAs and send them to prison like the pigs they are.