EDITORIAL: "Justice for Michael Morton's tormentor," published by the Dallas News on September 26, 2013.
PHOTO-CAPTION; "Ken Anderson defends his performance as Williamson County district
attorney, Friday, Feb. 8, 2013 in Georgetown,Texas. Ken Anderson, a
former Texas district attorney is choking back tears as he recalls a
prosecution that wrongfully sent a Texas man to prison for 25 years.
Morton was convicted in the slaying of his wife Christine in 1987 but
exonerated in 2011 following new DNA tests."
GIST: "The wheels of justice that Williamson County State District Judge Ken
Anderson manipulated so effectively to propel his own career are now
driving him down a radically different path — one that could ultimately
deposit him into a prison cell. Anderson resigned Monday, one week
before the start of a civil trial that could lead to his disbarment for
professional misconduct. He ruined an innocent man’s life. Anderson
should have resigned long ago. He was the driving force behind the 1987
conviction of Michael Morton for the brutal murder of Morton’s wife.
Morton spent 25 years behind bars before DNA testing confirmed his
innocence. He won his freedom in 2011. In 2012, Morton was one of two
exonerees named Dallas Morning News Texan of the Year for his work to fix Texas laws governing prosecutorial misconduct. Much
of the Legislature’s motivation in unanimously passing the Michael
Morton Act, which goes into effect Jan. 1, is rooted in the
prosecutorial misdeeds that occurred when Anderson served as Williamson
County district attorney. A court of inquiry in February found that
Anderson had tampered with government records and physical evidence and
failed to comply with a judge’s order to turn over evidence to defense
attorneys that would have helped prove Morton’s innocence. He faces
criminal charges punishable by up to 10 years in prison. During
Morton’s prosecution, Anderson asserted there was no such exculpatory
evidence when, in fact, there was plenty. Valuable years were lost
during which the real murderer, Mark Alan Norwood, could have been
tracked down. This doubles the injustice Anderson inflicted, especially
considering Norwood’s linkage to another, subsequent murder.........As
prosecutor, Ken Anderson charged forth with his murder case against
Michael Morton despite having no eyewitnesses, murder weapon or forensic
evidence linking Morton to the death of his wife. Anderson failed to
hand over potentially exculpatory evidence to defense attorneys,
including: Eyewitness accounts of a green van parked behind Morton’s house around the time of the killing. Eyewitness accounts of a strange man’s repeated appearances behind the Morton home in the days preceding the murder. A
transcript recounting a statement by Morton’s then 3-year-old son that
he had seen the real killer, and that person was not Morton."
The entire editorial can be found at:
