Today's Austin American-Statesman reports, "Man arrested in 1986 Morton slaying has long criminal history." It's written by Chuck Lindell and Patrick George.
A former carpet layer now working as a dishwasher in Bastrop was arrested Wednesday in the brutal 1986 beating death of Christine Morton, a Williamson County mother whose husband was wrongly convicted of her murder.
Mark Alan Norwood, 57, was arrested without incident at his Bastrop duplex, Williamson County Sheriff James Wilson said. Charged with capital murder, Norwood was being held at the Williamson County Jail on $750,000 bail.
Norwood also is a suspect in an unsolved Austin murder, the 1988 bludgeoning death of Debra Masters Baker in her home. Like Morton, Baker was repeatedly hit in the head with a blunt object as she lay in her bed.
And:
Michael Morton, freed Oct. 4 after spending almost 25 years in prison, has been living with his parents in Northeast Texas as he tries to rebuild his life. That's where lawyer John Raley reached him Wednesday to convey the news.
"He was quiet for a while as he absorbed it. He has known for some time that this day would come," Raley said. "He felt relief. He was happy. But this comes to him at the end of a long, twisted path, and it's still not over. This has cost him dearly."
Morton, his lawyers and Baker's family have been waiting for word of Norwood's arrest since July, when his DNA was linked to the slayings of both women.
Investigators interviewed Norwood in August and took a fresh DNA sample as inquiries proceeded - largely outside of public view - by law agencies in Travis and Williamson counties. The state attorney general's office also took the lead in the reinvestigation of the Morton killing.
"Suspect in Michael Morton Case Arrested," by Brandi Grissom at the Texas Tribune.
Norwood's DNA was identified in August when attorneys for Michael Morton won a court order forcing the Williamson County District Attorneys office to allow testing on the blue bandana found near the scene of Christine Morton's murder.
Morton was convicted of his wife's murder in 1987, and he was exonerated last month when DNA testing revealed Norwood's DNA mixed with Christine Morton's blood on the bandana.
And:
Houston lawyer John Raley and lawyers for the New York-based Innocence Project sought DNA testing on the bandana for six years. After a court ordered the testing last year, it excluded Morton. The DNA was entered into a national database and it matched DNA for Norwood that was gathered during his California arrest.
The AP filing is, "New suspect arrested in woman's 1986 slaying," It's by Will Weissert and Juan A. Lozano, via the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Michael Morton spent nearly a quarter century in prison for his wife's slaying before authorities acknowledged that they had the wrong man and set him free last month.
On Wednesday, a new suspect was arrested, linked by DNA to a bloody bandanna found near the Mortons' home in Williamson County.
A Bastrop man identified as Mark Alan Norwood, 57, faces a capital murder charge in the Aug. 13, 1986, slaying of Christine Morton, the Williamson County Sheriff's Department announced.
It's the latest twist in a case that includes a separate investigation of the man who prosecuted Michael Morton. Morton's attorneys say Ken Anderson, a former Williamson County district attorney, withheld evidence at Morton's trial that could have led police to the suspect decades earlier and prevented him from striking again.
Earlier coverage of Michael Morton's exoneration and subsequent investigations begins at the link.
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