This is huge. The Michael Morton case started in 1987 when then Prosecutor Ken Anderson withheld exculpatory evidence from the defense which led to Morton being jailed for 25 years. The Innocence Project, co-founded by Barry Scheck, took on the case and was able to find DNA evidence to clear Morton and convict the real killer.
The story is long and unreal. I read it about a year ago and I encourage you to read the whole thing after this short synopsis. A business man goes to work, an intruder gets into the house and kills his wife in the most brutal way while his 3 year old son is in the home. Because Michael Morton's birthday went poorly the night before, he had left a note for his wife, Christine, about his disappointment. That note was the crucible the police used to zero in on Morton to the exclusion of all other witnesses including his 3 year old son who told his grandmother that it was "a monster" who killed his mother, not his daddy.
Sheriff Jim Boutwell didn't do a perimeter search. Boutwell was convinced the husband did it from the beginning and conducted next to no investigation. They had their man and worked the evidence to get the conviction against Michael Morton. John Kirkpatrick, Christine Morton's brother couldn't believe what was happening and found a bloody blue bandana 100 yards behind the house and turned it into the police. They did nothing with it. There was bad forensics, a bad time of death, poor procedures, poor evidence handling, but everything they admitted to having went against Michael Morton.
The prosecution gave the defense maybe 12 sheets of paper during discovery.The two key pieces of evidence the prosecution withheld were that witnesses reported seeing a man park a green van nearby and walk into the woods near the Mortons' house and that Morton's 3-year-old son specifically said Morton wasn't at the scene.
The ugliness of the story is really in how Ken Anderson and his successor fought against Michael Morton pre and post conviction on every step of the way to prove his innocence. The bandana was eventually tested nearly 25 years later and was used to both clear Michael Morton and convict the real killer Mark Norwood of the murder of Christine Morton and implicate Norwood in the murder of another woman, Debra Baker, with nearly the same crime scene a few miles away from the Morton home.
After the conviction was over turned and Texas turned their attentions toward the prosecutor, Ken Anderson (by that time he was Judge Anderson), for misconduct; he still fought against admitting any wrongdoing. That process has taken nearly 2 years. Ken Anderson didn't succeed.
Ken Anderson fared far better than Michael Morton. Ken Anderson took a plea deal for Contempt of Court for lying to the judge in 1987. That plea that will only put him in jail for 10 years days, but the fact that he's going to jail at all is huge. It's a first for this country. Anderson also settled a civil suit with the Texas Bar Association and gave up his law license.
Who would blame Michael Morton if he did a victory lap today, after yesterday's news? No, he's classier than that:
“It’s a good day, ” Morton said after the hearing. “I said the only thing that I want, as a baseline, is Ken Anderson to be off the bench and no longer practicing law — and both of those things have happened, and more.”
Peace out Michael Morton. Live well.
7:46 AM PT: I found the rest on Sheriff Jim Boutwell. His shoddy work went unpunished and Morton's case wasn't the first time he tampered with justice. He collected over 100 false confessions, the most notable is Henry Lee Lucas. Boutwell died of cancer before he could be brought to justice. http://dmnewsi.com/...
8:34 AM PT: Thanks for the rec list. I'll be around, but I have chores to do; so I'll be in and out.