The Last man to Hang in Alberta

"I used to think it was up to the Crown to prove a person guilty, now, I believe different. I know they cannot prove me guilty, for in all truth, I am not. If I hang, murder will be committed in the name of the law."

Robert Raymond Cook in a letter to his lawyer

Despite that he maintained his innocence to the end, Robert Raymond Cook was hanged to death, the last man executed in Alberta. His case stirs up concern regarding the extent and effectiveness of punishment enacted by Alberta's legal system and is revisited through multiple texts, indicating an interest that has not yet abated.

While it is not for those outside of legal proceedings to determine, there is a contingent of society who believe Cook's conviction, and subsequent death, was unjust. Historian Alan Hustak notes that the case was so highly publicized that it would have been virtually impossible to put together an unbiased jury. In addition, Hustak comments on the tone surrounding the case, "a crime of that magnitude elicits extreme public reaction and vengeance is the oldest form of retribution. Someone would have to pay for an act that ended seven lives."

Jack Pecover, an Edmonton lawyer, is another individual who continues to question Cook's guilt. He has studied the Cook case for decades, publishing The work of justice: the trials of Robert Raymond Cook: the story of the last man hanged in Alberta, in 1996. A detailed account of the case from its jolting beginning, to its tragic finish, The work of justice attempts to illustrate the inherent problems throughout Cook's case.

The story of Cook's case has even made it to the stage. In 2000, Alberta playwright Aaron Coates began to workshop his play I'll Laugh Until I am Dead: The Trial of Robert Raymond Cook. The play, based on information gathered from the Legal Archives Society of Alberta, was another in a series of attempts to keep this significant event alive in the minds of Albertans.

Perhaps Robert Raymond Cook was innocent, or perhaps, as his verdict suggests, he was not. However, the importance of the Cook case lies in the act of execution, both in how it was historically acceptable in our province's legal system and in the relatively recent abolishment of it.