Man Convicted in Tyler Killing Asks to Have Name Cleared

AUSTIN (AP) — Attorneys for a man convicted in the fatal stabbing and beating of Linda Jo Edwards in East Texas in 1977 have filed documents to declare their client innocent. The Dallas Morning News reports lawyers for Kerry Max Cook filed documents in Smith County Monday arguing that six rounds of DNA testing from 1999 through 2015 failed to identify any evidence he was at the scene of the crime. Cook was convicted in 1978 for the slaying of the 21-year-old woman in her Tyler apartment and was sentenced to death. Cook maintained his innocence, and the verdict was overturned. A second trial ended in mistrial and a third trial sent him back to death row. Cook later pleaded no contest in 1999 to the killing for a sentence of time served.