A death row inmate convicted in Caddo Parish who, according to court documents, told a girlfriend he “didn’t go in to kill nobody,” now awaits a determination whether he will, more than 30 years later, be eligible for execution.
Louisiana State Penitentiary inmate Michael Cooks’ sanity is under review by a court-appointed commission. Caddo District Judge John Mosley Jr. appointed a replacement in May to fill the spot of a deceased member of the three-person group he originally appointed in October of 2025. No date for a hearing to review the commission’s findings has been announced.
Cooks was convicted on Nov. 7, 1996, for the Jan. 20, 1995, murder of Joe Frazier in the Lakeside area of Shreveport. Cooks was sentenced Jan. 17, 1997, to death, and the Louisiana Supreme Court affirmed his sentence in September 1998…