Kerry Max Cook
Faced with the ordeal of former Death Row inmate Kerry Max Cook — wrongfully convicted of the 1977 rape and murder of Linda Jo Edwards — GCW worked to clear his name and to amplify his voice against the death penalty.
Kerry Max Cook spent over two decades in a Texas prison for a crime he did not commit, and channelled the experience into activism and into Chasing Justice, a memoir published by HarperCollins.
GCW took a multi-faceted approach: promoting Cook's narrative, supporting defence attorneys Paul Nugent and David Gerger, orchestrating book signings and interviews, and building attention for his stage show, The Exonerated.
The campaign worked. Cook's story resonated widely, achieving thousands of news clips, with Robin Williams and Richard Dreyfuss among the artists who portrayed him in theatrical productions and argued publicly for his innocence.
Today, 45 years after that conviction, the Kerry Max Cook case remains one of Texas's most controversial murder cases — still echoing with the unresolved plea for his acknowledged innocence.
Results
- Thousands of news clips generated across the campaign
- Robin Williams and Richard Dreyfuss portrayed Cook and argued for his innocence
- A HarperCollins memoir and the stage show The Exonerated built into the story
