That's the title of a Texas Tribune series reported by Brandi Grissom. It features an interactive with additional information on the cases analyzed, an overview article, and a look at Kerry Max Cook's long fight for freedom and now, official exoneration. Here's the introduction:
The Texas Tribune analyzed 86 overturned convictions, finding that in nearly one quarter of those cases courts ruled that prosecutors made mistakes that often contributed to the wrong outcome. This multi-part series explores the causes and consequences of prosecutorial errors and whether reforms might prevent future wrongful convictions.
"Courts Found DA Error in Nearly 25% of Reversed Cases," is the overview that examines several of the cases.
From the moment 4-year-old April Tucker died, Debbie Tucker Loveless and John Harvey Miller told police and prosecutors that she had been mauled by dogs. But in 1989, the couple was convicted of murdering her and sentenced to life in prison.
Four seemingly endless years later, in 1993, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned their convictions, after a state district judge ruled prosecutors had withheld critical evidence that vindicated the couple.
Between 1989 and 2011, at least 86 Texas defendants including Loveless and Miller had their convictions overturned, according to the National Registry of Exonerations. In an extensive analysis of court rulings, news reports and pardon statements, The Texas Tribune found that in nearly one-quarter of those cases — 21 in total — courts ruled that prosecutors made mistakes that in most instances contributed to the wrong outcome. The wrongfully convicted in those cases spent a combined total of more than 270 years in prison.
In the cases, judges found that prosecutors broke basic legal and ethical rules, suppressing important evidence and witness testimony and making improper arguments to jurors. Despite the courts’ findings of some serious missteps, the State Bar of Texas reports very little public discipline of prosecutors in recent history.
The State Bar does not track discipline of prosecutors separately from other lawyers. But Linda Acevedo, the chief disciplinary counsel for the State Bar who has been at the agency since 1985, said she could recall three prosecutors who were publicly reprimanded. None of the reprimands were related to the 86 wrongful convictions.
"Interactive: Texas Wrongful Conviction Explorer," compiled by Ryan Murphy.
Grissom also writes, "Prosecutor Errors Haunt Long Exoneration Fight," on the case of Kerry Max Cook. It appears in the Texas edition of today's New York Times as, "As Former Death Row Inmate Tries to Clear His Name, His Life Is on Hold."
Kerry Max Cook had been out of prison for about three years when his son was born.
As Kerry Justice Cook slept in his crib, his father would peer down at him and cry, battling suicidal thoughts that he says have haunted him since his 20 horrific years on Texas’ death row.
“I’d tell K. J., ‘You’ve got to hurry up so you can talk to me. I’m so alone,’” Mr. Cook said.
K. J. is 11 now, and talking seems to be one of the mature youth’s fortes. He introduces his father to crowds at speaking engagements across the world.
“I find it quite amazing that he was able to go there for 22 years and go through every obstacle which he had to go through,” said the fifth grader, wearing a Mickey Mouse T-shirt and brushing shoulder-length blond hair away from his face. “I think he’s the most respectable man that I know.”
Mr. Cook, 56, was convicted of the 1977 rape and murder of Linda Jo Edwards in Tyler, Tex. His first conviction was overturned, a second trial ended in a hung jury and a third ended with a conviction that was reversed after a court found it was tainted by prosecutorial misconduct. Before Smith County attempted to try Mr. Cook a fourth time, he agreed to a plea deal in 1999. Pleading no contest, he was set free. DNA testing subsequently revealed another man’s biological matter on the victim’s clothes.
Mr. Cook has written a book, actors like Tim Robbins have portrayed him in a play about exonerations and he teaches courses about overcoming adversity. In the eyes of the law, though, Mr. Cook is still a convicted murderer. Normal life, he said, is beyond his reach.
“This freedom means nothing with a conviction,” he said.
Thirteen years after his release, Mr. Cook is battling with Smith County prosecutors to officially clear his name.
Earlier coverage of Kerry Max Cook and the National Registry of Exonerations begins at the links. Related posts are in the exoneration, prosecutorial misconduct, and wrongful incarceration category indexes.
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