13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
If you believe in Justice in our court system, read this...., March 16, 2007
This review is from: Chasing Justice: My Story of Freeing Myself After Two Decades on Death Row for a Crime I Didn't Commit (Hardcover)
because you won't be a believer for long.
Kerry Max Cook tells us exactly how it is to be on death row in this country. He paints the picture of being wrongly convicted that chills one to the very core of their being.
If your pro death penalty... you won't be so sure of that belief after reading this.
One has to give this man KUDOS for enduring a 20+ year nightmare. As well as the attorney's that stuck by his side and believed in him and worked pro bono. It takes a hell of a belief system to get through what this man survived.
I recommend this book to everyone, pro or anti death penalty. It is very educational on our justice system, prosecutor misconduct, judges who are blind to "real justice" & Investigators who will stop at nothing to gain a conviction.
TRUST THE EVIDENCE, NEVER TRUST THE AUTHORITIES.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Kerry Max Cook is a genius and his tale will change your life, February 27, 2007
This review is from: Chasing Justice: My Story of Freeing Myself After Two Decades on Death Row for a Crime I Didn't Commit (Hardcover)
This is a must have book and one that you will recommend over and over. From the prologue you will be hooked. Kerry must be the only person on this earth who could have survived the torment he was faced with. All along Kerry never gave up. I now see that the seemingly insurmountable problems that 99.99% of us are faced with are so ridiculous to be considered impossible. May God be with you Kerry and may this book find its way into the leaders of the TX legal system and bring about the rest and restitution you deserve.
-BP
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Chasing Justice is the story of the framing of Kerry Max Cook by the Texas justice system, January 21, 2008
This review is from: Chasing Justice: My Story of Freeing Myself After Two Decades on Death Row for a Crime I Didn't Commit (Hardcover)
Kerry Max Cook met young Linda Edwards in 1977 and was invited back to her apartment for a drink, where he left his fingerprints on the sliding glass door. Four days later, Ms. Edwards was found brutally murdered, and Cook was immediately arrested for the crime. In one of the worst examples of police and prosecutorial misconduct in American history, Kerry Max was put to trial with coached prosecutorial witnesses, bunk expert testimony about the "age" (six to twelve hours) of the fingerprint, and suppressed evidence that would have favored the defense. The state declared that Kerry Max was a repressed homosexual (at a time when homosexuality was a mental illness, and in rural Texas, no less) who raped and butchered a female out of repressed rage - a theory, incredibly, they stuck to even during re-trials two decades later, in the 1990's!
Chasing Justice is the story of the framing of Kerry Max by the Texas justice system. The narrative was written in Kerry's own hand (1,200 pages at first draft) and condensed into a powerfully personal 350-page account of life on death row - desperation, abandonment, rape and sodomy, stabbings, and attempted suicide. The prose isn't depressing; rather, Kerry Max just fights on, always waiting for the next turn, building his cadre of supporters. Texas death row has been ruled in federal court to constitute cruel and unusual punishment. Kerry Max fought for a full two decades for his freedom, through three outrageous trials, with not a penny to his name. While the major Dallas newspaper was decrying the railroading of an innocent man, he was convicted again and again and again. To date, he is still not eligible for reparations from the state of Texas because he has not been officially pardoned, which would require the unanimous concurrence several bureaucratic offices unwilling to admit their culpability in the grave trespass of justice against Kerry Max Cook. (By the way, the state spent $5 - $7 million over two decades in their effort to execute Kerry Max).
The reader will question - why Kerry Max? In his book, the author does not devote his energies to answering why, rather, he uses his energy to fight. From some brief research on the case, I have determined that the real culprit hired a very expensive, well-connected good ol' boy lawyer, requiring the police to find another suspect to satisfy the anger of the community. I can only begin to wonder how the Texas justice system conspired for 20 years to keep an innocent man behind bars. During each of his three trials, judges continually approved motions by the prosecutor and denied those of the defense, even to the point at which the court had contradicted itself on which evidence should be suppressed or allowed and for what reason!
Kerry Max's remarkable story is a damning indictment of the death penalty and the Texas justice system. Right before the publication of his memoir, national crime show Body of Evidence: From the Case Files of Dayle Hinman featured forensic experts "solving" the Edwards murder based on false evidence from the prosecution. Even 10 years have Kerry Max's exoneration in the national eye, misinformation is still being spread by those in power. Kerry Max Cook's experiences should serve as clear warning not to blindly accept the word of authority.
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