Open Mic

Hats off to TM journalist Pamela Colloff for a story well done, regarding the case of Antony Graves.

My name is Kerry Max Cook. i authored the Memoir, CHASING JUSTICE: My Story of freeing Myself After Two Decads on Death Row for a Crime I Didn’t Commit.

There are two things I will never forget for as long as I live, I will never, ever forget that sweltering summer day in 1978 when, at 20 years old, I climbed out of the back of a Smith County (Tyler, Texas) police car and stepped on to Death Row to begin the first day of what would become the next 22 years in an historical  wrongful conviction case that brought me days away from execution and became known as the worst example of police and prosecutorial misconduct in Texas history.   The second, the day I opened up my  first law book from inside my tiny cell and read these words:  "....It shall be the primary duty of the District Attorney’s Office to  not merely seek to convict, but see that justice is served...."

In the spirit of that sacraed cornerstone of American law that was designed to protect the innocent, I hope justice will be reached in the case of Anthony Graves.