GUILTY CA - Christine Morton, 31, beaten to death, Williamson County, 13 Aug 1986

expected to be freed 3pm CT, his family have just arrived at courthouse to take him home, I always get a tad emotional when I read these cases,
 
Glad that the truth came out but so sorry for him and his family. This kind of case is what makes me against the death penalty.
 
I hope he enjoys his remaining years with his family, and once again we hear that a prosecutor hid exculpatory evidence from his defence, and then continued to try to keep it a secret when his defence requested it to try to show that it was a wrongful conviction
 
Glad that the truth came out but so sorry for him and his family. This kind of case is what makes me against the death penalty.


I completely agree, how many men or women have been executed who were innocent, many of them having no champions to fight for them, so they were convicted and sent to death row, and were eventually executed for a crime they did not commit

you can free a wrongfully convicted man if he is alive, you cannot resurrect him if he is dead
 
John Bradley is alive and should be incarcerated for the next 25 years for railroading this guy in to prison.

"Morton’s lawyers have accused John Bradley, the local district attorney, of suppressing evidence that would have helped clear Morton, who was sentenced to life in prison in 1987 for his wife's fatal beating the year before. That evidence included a transcript of a police interview indicating that Morton's son said the attacker was not his father. The Innocence Project eventually obtained the transcript through a Public Information Act request.
Bradley has a track record of opposing similar investigations during his time on the Texas Forensic Science Commission, to which he was appointed by Gov. Rick Perry in 2009.
During a Monday hearing in the case, Bradley urged the public to “recall that prosecutors are called upon to do justice ... that we are searching for the fair solution,” according to the Associated Press."
 
What a tragic story. I'm not 100% for the death penalty - and this is exactly why.

I'm so sorry for Mr. Morton and I wish him all the very best in what's left of his life.

Bradley should be disbarred and locked up for 25 years. I will never understand how anyone could possibly consider their pride and reputation to be more valuable than the life of an innocent man. Shame on him.

I hope we soon learn the identity of the real murderer.
 
Horrible. Not only this guy lost his wife, he had to go to prison for her murder, and the child lost both his mother and father after witnessing a murder of his mother.
 
Unprecedented use of Texas law on books since 1965.

Texas judge faces 'court of inquiry' into wrongful conviction (Los Angeles Times)
GEORGETOWN, Texas--A Texas judge who prosecuted a man wrongfully convicted of murder and freed after serving 25 years in prison faces an unprecedented court hearing Monday on whether he should be prosecuted for mishandling the case.

Williamson County District Judge Ken Anderson faces a “court of inquiry” to address allegations that he lied and concealed evidence — in violation of the law and a judge’s order — that could have cleared Michael Morton, who was convicted in the 1986 beating death of his wife, Christine, at their Williamson County home.

Morton was exonerated and released almost a year and a half ago, after DNA tests confirmed his innocence and another man, Mark Alan Norwood, was charged in connection with the killing.
---
Texas has seen a slew of exonerations in recent years, tarnishing the national reputation of its justice system, some legal experts said.

“That this is happening in Texas may make people watch more closely — can Texas clean its own house?” said Pace Law School professor Bennett Gershman, who has written widely on misconduct by prosecutors.
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much more at the links
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A man had been watching them, casing them. After Morton left for work [at Safeway] that morning, the man snuck into the house and savagely beat 31 year old Christine Morton to death with a wooden club while young Eric watched. The murderer stole her purse and fled, leaving Eric to wander the front yard.
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As for the evidence, neighbors told police that a man in a green van repeated parked in the woods behind the Morton's home and watched the property. And 11 days after the murder, three year old Eric told his grandmother, Christine's mother, that a monster came into the house and hurt mommy.
---
Innocence Project co-founder Barry Scheck says knowledge of this evidence would have meant the world to Morton's original criminal defense team, but they didn't find out about its existence until 25 years later.

BARRY SCHECK: The report of the green van is, you know, very important because remember, poor Michael is on trial and they're alleging that somebody must have come in the house through the back door, through the wooded area where there were fingerprints and signs of entry.

And there's no corroboration to back it up for independent witnesses. And there it is sitting the prosecution's file.
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Texas Court Of Inquiry To Decide If Prosecutor Lied (NPR)
 
Mr. Morton has been in the news recently. A documentary titled "An Unreal Dream: The Michael Morton Story" will debut Monday at SXSW Film Festival.
The trailer is at this link: http://schedule.sxsw.com/2013/events/event_FS13855
Seeing his son talk & then him talk about his son is heartbreaking. I'm looking forward to when it will be available to the general public.

And in the NY Times, a nice article about his recent wedding - http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/10/fashion/weddings/ready-to-share-a-life-of-front-page-news.html

KILGORE, Tex. — Michael Morton and Cynthia May Chessman politely told the approximately 200 guests invited to their wedding on Saturday to resist giving them gifts. Instead, they asked relatives and friends to donate to the Innocence Project, the nonprofit group founded at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University that uses DNA evidence to free the wrongfully convicted from prison.
 
lovely picture, so pleased to see he has been able to find happiness and a good life post his release, he sounds like a good man, and the kindness of not accepting gifts but asking for donations to the Innocence Project who helped him get his release is nice to read,

I wish him so much joy for the rest of his life,
 
http://www.anunrealdream.com/
“Morton’s spirit of ‘letting go’ doesn’t just carry this extraordinary film. It is the living spirit of the film… For all its heartache, “An Unreal Dream” is ultimately a story of transcendence.”

Brad Buchholz,
Austin American-Statesman

http://www.statesman.com/news/entertainment/movies/michael-morton-documentary-is-a-reflection-of-grac/nWjC4/

Michael Morton documentary is a reflection of grace
By Brad Buchholz
American-Statesman Staff
Notes: Also screens 6:30 p.m. Wednesday (Alamo Village), 4 p.m. March 16 (Topfer Theatre). Michael Morton is expected to answer questions at all three screenings.

http://www.texastribune.org/2013/02/09/ken-andersons-testimony-caps-dramatic-inquiry/

by Brandi Grissom
February 9, 2013
GEORGETOWN — Defiant, angry and frustrated, former prosecutor Ken Anderson took the stand on Friday to defend himself, ending a week of dramatic testimony in an unusual court of inquiry that is examining whether the former district attorney committed criminal misconduct during the trial that led to the wrongful murder conviction of Michael Morton.

A ruling will be issued in April. I am hoping for an arrest warrant for the former prosecutor.
 

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