Man to Get DNA Tests in 1977 Tyler Stabbing Case

TYLER (AP/Staff) – A man twice sentenced to death – but later freed – over the 1977 rape and murder of a Tyler woman will get new DNA testing that he says will demonstrate his innocence. A judge on Monday granted Kerry Max Cook’s request to have more testing. Smith County District Attorney Matt Bingham says he doesn’t know yet what Cook will want tested or re-tested, but that he doesn’t oppose it. Cook was twice convicted of killing Linda Jo Edwards. Courts overturned both convictions. In 1999, Cook agreed to plead no contest to murder for a sentence of time served. Judge John Ovard of Dallas denied the request of Cook’s attorneys to have State District Judge Christi Kennedy recuse herself and to have the case moved elsewhere.