Exonerated by the Evidence, Convicted by the System
Kerry Max Cook
Wednesday, 16 Apr 2014 at 8:00 pm – Great Hall, Memorial Union
At 21-years-old, Kerry Max Cook was sentenced to death for the rape and murder of an East Texas woman. He was tried and re-tried nearly four times over 22 years in what is considered, "...the worst documented example of police and prosecutorial misconduct in Texas history." Twenty years after his first conviction, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned his conviction, and prosecutors still refused to drop the charges against Kerry. After rejecting multiple plea deals, Kerry reluctantly accepted a plea-of-no-contest in exchange for immediate freedom. Kerry's plea did not include an admission of guilt or the standard "Stipulation of Evidence." Despite this, the judge accepted Kerry's no-contest plea, the first and only in a Capital Murder case in Texas, and he was released. Two months later, the results of a DNA test showed that semen found in the victim's underwear belonged to her 45-year-old, married ex-boyfriend, James Mayfield. Despite this exonerating DNA evidence, Kerry remains convicted of a murder he did not commit.Human Rights Watch considers Kerry, "...the most brutalized inmate ever confined to an American prison institution." He has appeared on Nightline, Geraldo, The Today Show, Frontline, and several other programs. His story has also been featured in numerous publications including, The New York Times, Texas Monthly, and the Boston Globe. He has written a best-selling memoir called "Chasing Justice," for which John Grisham wrote in review, "If it were fiction, no one would believe it..."
Cosponsored By:
- Liberal Arts & Sciences Council
- Psi Chi - National Honor Society in Psychology
- Psychology
- Psychology Club
- Sociology
- Wendy & Mark Stavish Endowed Chair in Social Scien
- Committee on Lectures (funded by Student Government)
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