State District Judge Ken Anderson, then the Williamson County District Attorney, prosecuted Michael Morton. Yesterday, his deposition was filed and opened. The transcript is broken into two parts, volume 1 and volume 2.
Brandi Grissom writes, "In Deposition, Morton Prosecutor Can't Recall Details," for the Texas Tribune. Here's the beginning of her report:
Judge Ken Anderson, the former prosecutor who saw to the wrongful conviction of Michael Morton, said during a marathon deposition that he remembered few of the details from the 25-year-old case and that he believes he did not violate a judge's order to turn over evidence pointing to Morton's innocence.
Anderson, who is now a state district judge, was Williamson County's district attorney in 1987, when Morton was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his wife, Christine Morton. Last month, Morton was released from prison after DNA evidence on a bandana found near the crime scene revealed that another man was likely the murderer.
But Morton's lawyers — Houston attorney John Raley with Raley & Bowick and the New York-based Innocence Project — contend it shouldn't have taken 25 years to discover that he was innocent. They are investigating whether Anderson suppressed key evidence at trial that could have implicated someone else.
Defense lawyers allege that Anderson intentionally withheld a transcript in which Christine Morton’s mother told a sheriff's investigator that the couple’s 3-year-old son, Eric, saw a "monster" who was not his father brutally attack his mother. They also claim prosecutors withheld information about Christine Morton's credit card being used and a check being cashed with her forged signature days after her death along with neighbors' reports of a man in a green van who appeared to be casing the area.
Michael Morton sat in during much of what was an often testy more than nine-hour-long deposition over two days. Barry Scheck, co-director of the Innocence Project, questioned Anderson, who defended his prosecution and maintained he did nothing wrong.
Earlier coverage of the Michael Morton's exoneration begins at the link.
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