AMES, Iowa -- Human Rights Watch considers Kerry Max Cook "... the most brutalized inmate ever confined to an American prison institution." During a talk at Iowa State University, he will share his experiences as an innocent inmate battling the system for 22 years from death row.
Cook will present "Exonerated by the Evidence, Convicted by the System" at 8 p.m. Wednesday, April 16, in the Memorial Union Great Hall. His talk is free and open to the public.
At the age of 21, 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. Twenty years after his first conviction, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned his conviction, and prosecutors still refused to drop the charges.
After rejecting multiple plea deals, Cook 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 Cook'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 belonged to the victim's married ex-boyfriend. Despite this exonerating DNA evidence, Cook remains convicted of a murder he did not commit.
Cook has written a best-selling memoir, "Chasing Justice." He has appeared on "Nightline," "Geraldo," "The Today Show," "Frontline" and several other programs. His story also has been featured in numerous publications, including The New York Times, Texas Monthly and the Boston Globe.
Cook's lecture is co-sponsored by the Wendy and Mark Stavish Endowed Chair in Social Sciences Fund, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences' Council, Psi Chi national honor society in psychology, Department of Psychology, Department of Sociology and the Committee on Lectures, which is funded by the Government of the Student Body.
More information on ISU lectures is available at www.lectures.iastate.edu, or by calling 515-294-9935.
