My name is Kerry Max Cook. For a long time, or for 22 years, Texas knew me as just "Cook, execution # 600." The only reason I came to be a resident of Texas death row facing an execution to begin with in the rape and murder of an East Texas woman was because of the egregious Smith County police and prosecutorial misconduct that put me there.
The preamble to the Texas State Penal Code, Article 2.01, reads, in part:
In my award-winning book, CHASING JUSTICE, I detailed a rich history of mind-boggling, well documented, judicially acknowledged police and prosecutorial misconduct - - police & prosecutorial misconduct so severe, it is said to be the worst in Texas history. In fact, famed author John Grisham writes for the cover of my book saying, "If it were fiction, no one would believe it...."
“ …It shall be the primary duty of all prosecuting attorneys, including any special prosecutors, not to convict, but to see that justice is done. They shall not suppress facts or secrete witnesses capable of establishing the innocence of the accused…
These words are as worthless as the paper they were once written on if and when you find yourself arrested in the wrong Texas county and prosecuted like I did, like Michael Morton did, Anthony Graves, Earnest Willis, Tim Cole, Clarance Lee Brandley, and maybe even Cameron Todd Willingham did.
There are a a few solutions that could go a long way in preventing this flagrant disregard for the rule of law being committed by rogue Texas prosecutors who are free to practice a win-at-all-cost mentality that can be implemented statutorily by either our Texas Legislature, or by Decree by the Texas State Bar Association.
The State Bar Of Texas
The State Bar of Texas has the power and authority to hold prosecutors who violate the law, or engage in unethical malpractice, accountable. State law says "The prosecutor in a criminal case shall make timely disclosure to the defense of all evidence or information known to the prosecutor that tends to negate the guilt of the accused or mitigates the offense."
The Texas Legislature and what they can do
Recently in response to the Williamson County wrongful conviction case of Michel Morton that was due only because of the deliberate suppression of exculpatory evidence that would have brought about a not guilty verdict originally had it not been concealed, according to the head of the Texas District and County Attorneys Association of the State Bar of Texas, Mr. Rob Kepple, the problem can't be fixed with any new law. Mr. Kepple told the Texas Tribune that "a new discovery law would not have prevented the kind of misconduct alleged in the Michael Morton case. If a prosecutor or investigator decides to withhold key information - - even in the face of the Brady rules that already require its disclosure by law - a new state law will not spur compliance. If somebody didn’t play fair back then, I’m not sure exactly what law we change today to address it," Mr. Kepple said. Of course he is right. Why he himself hasn't done anything about it in his long tenure representing justice as head of the District Attorneys section of the State Bar of Texas is another story. But suffice it to say, this is the section of the Texas State Bar Association that awarded both my prosecutor (Jack Skeen) and Michael Morton's (Ken Anderson), "Prosecutor of the Year" awards.
The most sincere and honest solutions I have ever witnesses by an honest prosecutor came from Dallas County District Attorney Mr. Craig Watkins. He proposed enacting criminal liability for Brady material violations committed by prosecutors.
Texas legislators can't overrule federal court decisions, like the protection given prosecutors by the US Supreme Court, but I call on the Texas Legislature to create it's own independent solution that would be the a statutory requirement crafted after USC Article 42, Section 1983 and permit civil suits in Texas State Court against prosecutors who willfully engage in egregious prosecutorial misconduct that produces an established wrongful conviction. I am referring to cases such as the well documented misconduct that was responsible for sending me to death row orchestrated by former Smith County District Attorney Jack Skeen (now a State District Judge in Tyler); that which was done to Michael Morton by former Williamson Country district attorney Ken Anderson (now a State District Judge in Georgetown) and his predecessor, John Bradley; the case of Anthony Graves misconduct committed by former Burleson County district attorney Charles Sebesta, the Conroe case of Clarance Lee Brandley...the list of a different type of unrecognized victim just goes on and on and on in Texas.
Four millions dollars for deliberately suppressing evidence that would have created reasonable doubt and made a jury vote not guilty in his wife's murder, costing him 25 years excruciating years hidden away in a dangerous Texas prison? I'll tell you what "law," if done away with, would make prosecutors think twice before railroading someone to prison by withholding exculpatory evidence: Do away with the the legal protection created by the United States Supreme Court called "Absolute Immunity."This shields a prosecutor from any accountability from what they do and how they do it.
Remove the "Absolute Immunity" protection and make the price of a wrongful conviction far more expensive than the paltry sum currently paid by Texas today - - the lowest in the Nation. This would make prosecutor's think twice before concealing Brady evidence, or evidence that tended to establish the innocence of the accused.
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