Chasing Justice - by Kerry Max Cook (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

"Immensely compelling. ... If it were fiction, no one would believe it. Kerry Cook's account of his nightmare is fascinating." -John Grisham

"Cook's story is so gripping that only a heart of steel won't break after reading it." -People

An Edgar Award Finalist - Best Fact Crime Book A Dallas Morning News Bestseller

The harrowing, inspiring, and beautifully written story of a man wrongly sent to death row for two decades by the state of Texas.

In 1977, at age 19, Kerry Max Cook was arrested and wrongly convicted of the capital murder of a young woman in Tyler, Texas. On death row, when Cook wasn't struggling to survive amid vicious inmates and inhumane conditions, he was fighting a justice system determined to muzzle him and loath to admit their horrendous mistake. Through his perseverance and the hard work of a team of crusading lawyers, his death sentence was reversed-11 days before his planned execution in late 1996.

Here is Cook's story, in his own heartbreaking and moving words. Sure to spark debate about the American judicial system and the death penalty, Chasing Justice is an inspiration to anyone who has struggled to master the hand life has dealt.

From the Back Cover

Kerry Cook is an innocent man who wrongly served two decades in Texas's notorious death house for the brutal 1977 rape and murder of 21-year-old Linda Jo Edwards. His struggle for freedom is said to be one of the worst cases of police and prosecutorial misconduct in American history.

In the summer of 1977, Cook was staying in Tyler, TX. He met an attractive young woman named Linda Edwards and was invited back to her apartment for a drink and left his fingerprints on the sliding glass door. Four days later, Ms. Edwards was found brutally murdered. When the police dusted for prints, they found Cook's and immediately arrested him. Edward Jackson testified that Cook confessed to the murder during a jailhouse conversation. Jackson was set free, only to kill again several years later. Cook, on the other hand, was convicted and sentenced to death.

He was thrown into a world for which no one could be prepared, and he survived beatings, sexual abuse, and depression; all the while, he fought against a justice system that was determined to keep him quiet and loath to admit a mistake. Through the work of a crusading group of lawyers who forced a series of retrials, his case made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ordered the case be reconsidered. It wasn't until the spring of 1999 that Cook was finally able to put the nightmare behind him: long-suppressed DNA evidence had linked James Mayfield, Linda Edwards's ex-lover, to the crime.

Review Quotes

"Chasing Justice is an immensely compelling story that is hard to believe. If it were fiction, no one would believe it. But it's not, and Kerry Cook's account of his nightmare is fascinating." -- John Grisham

"Chasing Justice is captivating...It is going to break through political barriers and be a catalyst for reform. -- Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking

"The incredible story of this enforced visit to hell and back is a modern day version of Dante and Kafka." -- Alan Dershowitz, Harvard Law School

"I dare you to read this book. . . An inspiring human being." -- Richard Dreyfuss

"A brutal but compelling account. . . . Amazing." -- William S. Sessions, former FBI Director and federal judge

"Deserves a wide readership alongside John Grisham's The Innocent Man. -- Publishers Weekly

"An inmate's harrowing first-person account of a travesty of Texas jurisprudence." -- Kirkus Reviews

"Kafka-esque...That he survived is astounding; the circumstances that finally freed him...are nearly miraculous." -- Texas Monthly

"Cook's story is so gripping that only a heart of steel won't break after reading it." -- People