SANDRA PRESSEY

JOURNEY OF HOPE...
from violence to healing™

ORGANIZER FOR THE TEXAS JOURNEY

MVFR MEMBER: SANDRA'S BROTHER WAS KILLED

TEXAS:
After years of wrangling with the justice system, former death row
inmate Kerry Cook said Sunday that he is finally moving on and building
a new life.

A wedding reception for Mr. Cook and his wife, Sandra Kaye Pressey, an
environmental consultant, took place Saturday at the Midlothian home of
one of Mr. Cook's closest friends.

The couple married in Plano last month.

Mr. Cook's wife, whom he described as his best friend, is 14 weeks
pregnant. He said fatherhood is "going to enable me to put death row
behind me."

Mr. Cook was tried three times and convicted and sentenced to death
twice. One trial ended in a hung jury. He spent 22 years in prison -
13 on death row - and once came within 11 days of execution .

"It's a new beginning," Mr. Cook said of his marriage. "What it signifies
is actually the creation of a new life and putting the old life behind
me."

He said he met his wife at a death row conference at Southern Methodist
University shortly after he was released in 1997. Mr. Cook, who manages a
store and works as a paralegal in the Dallas area, is attending a local
community college and plans to enroll at Southern Methodist University.

Mr. Cook spent time in prison for the murder of Linda Jo Edwards. Ms.
Edwards' body was found in her apartment on June 10, 1977. She had been
beaten on the head with a plaster statue, stabbed in the throat, chest
and back and sexually mutilated.

Mr. Cook was arrested about 2 months later while working as a bartender
in Port Arthur. Officers said they found Mr. Cook's fingerprint on Ms.
Edwards' apartment door.

He originally denied knowing Ms. Edwards but later said he met her at
the apartment complex's swimming pool and went to her apartment.

His original capital murder conviction, which resulted in a death
sentence, was overturned because of prosecutorial misconduct. A 1992
retrial ended in a hung jury. He was convicted and sentenced to death
again in 1994; in 1996, that verdict was overturned.

Last year, on the eve of a 4th trial, Mr. Cook pleaded no contest to
a reduced charge of murder and was sentenced to 20 years time served .

At the time, Mr. Cook said he took the deal because it allowed him to
avoid the prospect of a return to death row without requiring him to
concede guilt.

(source: Dallas Morning News)

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