t took the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals eight years to to rule on an actual innocence claim filed by Kerry Max Cook who served two decades on death row for the 1977 murder of Linda Jo Edwards in Tyler, Texas.

“The road to this point has been long, much of it unnecessarily slow … the victim of repeated delays,” according to the court.

Why did it take so long?

The answer, according to the court, is due to a combination of a case that involves extremely voluminous records, COVID-19, a ransomware attact, changes in the defense team and failure on the part of the trial court and Smith County to provide parts of the records.

Cook file for relief in September 2015. It was granted in 2016, but Smith County failed to transmit the full record to the Austin appellate court.

After “numerous informal requests and phone calls” the court’s staff and Smith County, the court in May 2019 ordered the missing parts of the record to be sent to Austin.

Smith County and trial court officials “failed to respond in a timely manner.”

In May 2022, the court ordered the County to comply with the previous order.

During this time the effects of the COVID pandemic and a ransomeware attack caused further delays.

The court also noted that during this appeal process twice changed attorneys.

The court finally received all the requested records on Sept. 21, 2022. It took another month for the defense to reply to the state’s case summary.

Although the court did not specifically name the Smith County employees responsible for the delay, the district clerk’s office and the individual court employees are responsible for maintaining the records.

District Clerk Penny Clarkson, who took office in 2019, came under fire earlier this year when former county commissioner JoAnne Fleming filed a lawsuit seeking her removal from office for “ignoring her official duties” and violating Texas codes.