"Morton expected to be freed today after 25 years," is the title of Chuck Lindell's Austin American-Statesman report.
After almost 25 years in prison, Michael Morton will be freed as early as today after Williamson County prosecutors agreed that new DNA evidence points to another man as the killer of his wife in 1986.
Recent DNA tests also linked the man, a felon identified as John Doe in court because he has not yet been arrested, to the unsolved Austin murder of Debra Jan Baker in 1988.
Like Christine Morton, Baker was killed in bed by multiple blows to the head from a blunt object.
John Doe was not in prison during either murder, and he lived only a few blocks from Baker when she was killed, Morton lawyer Nina Morrison said during a Monday hearing into Morton's innocence claim.
Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley said finding a DNA link between two similar murders, one committed while Morton was in prison, was "lightning-bolt type of information" that prompted him to agree to Morton's release.
Investigations will continue into both murders.
A separate investigation also will continue into allegations that then-prosecutor Ken Anderson and sheriff's investigators improperly withheld evidence that could have saved Morton from a guilty verdict.
Morton's lawyers renewed those allegations in court filings Monday, adding that it appears investigators were so focused on Morton that they neglected substantial leads, including reports that Christine Morton's credit card and a forged check were used to make purchases days after her murder. Her purse was reported stolen in the crime.
Bradley initiated the move to free Morton with a Friday phone call to Barry Scheck, co-founder of the Innocence Project, resulting in long hours spent drafting "findings of fact" to be ready for Monday's already scheduled hearing.
Morton learned about his impending freedom Saturday.
And:
Court filings from the Innocence Project accused Anderson and sheriff's investigators of hiding evidence that could have raised doubts about Morton's guilt. The evidence, which came to light since 2008, included:
• A taped police conversation with Christine Morton's mother, who said the Mortons' 3-year-old son described the attack, identified key details about the murder scene and said his father was not home at the time.
• A handwritten telephone message to lead investigator Sgt. Don Wood, dated two days after the murder, reporting that Christine Morton's missing Visa card had apparently been recovered at a San Antonio store. There is no record that the lead was followed up in the sheriff's or district attorney's case files, which have been opened to Morton's lawyers, the court filing says.
• Two messages telling Wood a check made out to Christine Morton was cashed nine days after her death, and the signature on the back appeared to be a forgery of Christine's name. There is no sign the lead was investigated, the filing said.
Had the clues been disclosed, it is likely that Morton would not have been convicted, and it's possible the Baker murder could have been averted, the court filing said.
"We are going to continue the investigation of those matters, because we regard them as extraordinarily serious," Scheck said after the hearing. "Stay tuned and keep your eye on the ball. This story is by no means over."
"DA Agrees DNA Evidence Doesn't Support Morton's Guilt," by Brandi Grissom for the Texas Tribune.
Michael Morton, who served 25 years in prison for the murder of his wife Christine, will be released after his attorneys reached an agreement with prosecutors, who agreed today in a legal filing that DNA evidence revealed Morton almost certainly was not the killer.
"Because new DNA evidence, previously unavailable at trial or at the time of Applicant’s prior writ applications through no fault of either party, indicates that someone other than Applicant committed the offense in this case, Applicant’s conviction should be set aside under the authority set forth above," Morton's attorneys and Williamson County prosecutors stated in a jointly agreed to "findings of fact and conclusions of law."
Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley said that the new developments — which he said were a "lightning bolt type" of discovery — warranted a reversal of Morton's murder conviction.
"It is my job, as district attorney, to make sure that justice is done," Bradley said after the court action today.
And:
"It's been a long, hard fight," said John Raley, a lawyer with the Houston firm Raley and Bowick, who worked pro bono for six years on the Morton case, along with the New York-based Innocence Project.
The Morton case could have serious ramifications for John Bradley, the former head of the Texas Forensic Science Commission who was critical of efforts to examine questions about the arson science used to convict Cameron Todd Willingham in the 1991 deaths of his three daughters. (Willingham was executed in 2004.)
For more than six years, Bradley resisted turning over the bandana and other evidence for new DNA testing until a Texas appellate court ordered him to do so last year.
On Monday, Bradley said he could not discuss the reasons he opposed DNA testing in the Morton case for more than six years. Doing so, he said, would jeopardize the ongoing investigation of the murders of Christine Morton and Debra Jan Baker.
“As a lawyer, I had what I believe are good-faith reasons for raising concerns about that," he said.
Raley, Morton's defense attorney, said the case proves that prosecutors should never fight against DNA testing. "It can only reveal the truth,” Raley said. “And those that oppose it are being inherently illogical.”
According to the Innocence Project, there have been 43 DNA exonerations in Texas, not including Morton's case, which still must be reviewed and approved by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
Morton's attorneys also say Bradley sat on evidence that should have been turned over to the defense and that could have helped exonerate him. In addition to making claims of innocence on behalf of Morton in legal documents filed today, his lawyers also alleged that Williamson County prosecutors violated his due process rights in several ways.
The AP filing is, "DNA helps free Texas man convicted in wife's death," by Will Weissert. It's via the Dallas Morning News.
Texas prosecutors agreed Monday to release an Austin man who spent nearly 25 years in prison for beating his wife to death — but always maintained his innocence — after DNA tests showed another man was responsible.
District Judge Sid Harle recommended Michael Morton go free to the state Court of Criminal Appeals, which will make the final determination on overturning his conviction. Morton is set for release Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning, following a final hearing before Harle.
The case will likely raise more questions about John Bradley, district attorney for Williamson County north of Austin and once a Gov. Rick Perry appointee to head the Texas Forensic Science Commission. Bradley criticized the commission's investigation of the case of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed in 2004 after being convicted of arson in the deaths of his three children. Experts have since concluded that case's forensic science was faulty.
The Innocence Project, a New York-based organization that specializes in using DNA testing to overturn wrongful convictions, has accused Bradley of suppressing evidence that would have helped clear Morton, who was convicted on circumstantial evidence and sentenced to life in prison for his wife's August 1986 beating death.
Earlier coverag of Michael Morton's case begins at the link.
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