Michael Morton Exonerated After Serving 25 Years for a Murder He Didn't Commit (case, attorney)
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CNN has been profiling the case of Michael Morton. Morton was convicted in Texas of murdering his wife. The case against him was weak to say the least. There was no murder weapon, no physical evidence tying him to the killing, and no real motive for the killing. Nevertheless, a jury convicted him of killing his wife and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
Michael was exonerated years later when a DNA test was performed on a bandana found outside the home where the murder occurred. The DNA matched another man in Texas who had a history of breaking into homes and assaulting people.
Michael is now free and able to resume his life.
DNA testing is what prevented this miscarriage of justice from getting worse. The reality though is that a jury had no business convicting him based on the weak and virtually ridiculous case the prosecution put on. In some places, it apparently doesn't take much to convict an innocent person of murder.
If I were him I'd be getting the best Lawyers I could and be trying to sue the heck out of any agency I could who was responsible for putting me in jail for this. 25 years of life stolen from him, completely unacceptable!
He said he forgave the prosecutor. I guess the anger, resentment would kill him if he let it in. Maybe forgiveness was easier, in a way, than all of the hating. No energy to hate. But, what a scum ball prosecutor.
If I were him I'd be getting the best Lawyers I could and be trying to sue the heck out of any agency I could who was responsible for putting me in jail for this. 25 years of life stolen from him, completely unacceptable!
Ordinarily, such a lawsuit is not possible. There is something called governmental immunity which prohibits suits against the state or public officials. Although, sometimes states--on their own--choose to give monetary compensation to those wrongly convicted of a crime.
The prosecution's conduct in refusing to produce exculpatory evidence for the defense was inexcusable. However, what I come back to is the only evidence against Michael was that he (1) was married to the victim; (2) had had a minor dispute with her the night before; and (3) there was some very flawed testimony about the time during which she was killed that was based on the coroner finding food in her stomach.
This was all it took for this jury to find Michael guilty of first degree murder and sentence him to prison for life. They didn't do their job and its that simple.
CNN has been profiling the case of Michael Morton. Morton was convicted in Texas of murdering his wife. The case against him was weak to say the least. There was no murder weapon, no physical evidence tying him to the killing, and no real motive for the killing. Nevertheless, a jury convicted him of killing his wife and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
Michael was exonerated years later when a DNA test was performed on a bandana found outside the home where the murder occurred. The DNA matched another man in Texas who had a history of breaking into homes and assaulting people.
Michael is now free and able to resume his life.
DNA testing is what prevented this miscarriage of justice from getting worse. The reality though is that a jury had no business convicting him based on the weak and virtually ridiculous case the prosecution put on. In some places, it apparently doesn't take much to convict an innocent person of murder.
The prosecutor should be charged for not showing all the evidence. The prosecutor obviously doesn't have a conscience. This sort of thing shouldn't happen. It is about justice afterall and getting the guilty party. Lucky this man wasn't executed.
The prosecutor should be charged for not showing all the evidence. The prosecutor obviously doesn't have a conscience. This sort of thing shouldn't happen. It is about justice afterall and getting the guilty party. Lucky this man wasn't executed.
Maybe the prosecutor, or the police doing the investigation, didn't consider the bandana to be evidence. DNA testing didn't exist in those days, so what evidence was anyone hiding?
Maybe the prosecutor, or the police doing the investigation, didn't consider the bandana to be evidence. DNA testing didn't exist in those days, so what evidence was anyone hiding?
This is a good question.
The bandana was only part of the exculpatory evidence. An investigator had interviewed Michael's child who was present in the home at the time the victim was killed. The child gave a statement describing the perpetrator. The description was very much at odds with the way Michael looked. Additionally, the child specifically stated that his father was not the perpetrator of this crime.
This statement was kept from Michael's attorneys. That statement is the very definition of "exculpatory evidence" or evidence tending to show that one is not guilty.
The prosecutor was given some relatively minor punishment for what occurred and voluntarily surrendered his license to practice law. I calculate though that he must have been retirement age anyway when this occurred.
Again, though, I still place the most blame on the jury in this case. There simply was not evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that Michael committed this dastardly crime. Yet, the jury voted to convict him and than to sentence him to life imprisonment. The whole thing cost Michael 25 years of his life and it just stinks.
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