Today's Austin American-Statesman reports, "Bradley complaint dismissed in Morton case," by Chuck Lindell.
The State Bar of Texas has dismissed a complaint alleging that Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley engaged in misconduct and violated ethics rules in his handling of the Michael Morton case.
Morton was freed in October after serving almost 25 years in prison when DNA tests implicated another man in the 1986 murder of his wife, Christine Morton, in their southwest Williamson County home.
According to the grievance filed in November by the Texas Coalition on Lawyer Accountability, an Austin organization that focuses on attorney responsibility, Bradley improperly fought to prevent the DNA testing that led to Morton's exoneration.
Bradley's opposition was an apparent attempt to cover up misconduct by Morton's trial prosecutors and extended Morton's prison stay by six years before an appeals court ordered the testing to take place, the complaint said.
But in a Dec. 28 letter, released Tuesday by Bradley, the state bar's Office of the Chief Disciplinary Counsel said an examination determined that "the information alleged does not demonstrate professional misconduct."
"As the report from (Morton's lawyers with) the Innocence Project indicated," Bradley said via email, "the DA's office acted professionally and ethically in handling the Morton claim of innocence, arising from a 25-year-old conviction through a different prosecutor."
Julie Oliver, executive director of the coalition, said she plans to file an appeal with the state bar's Board of Disciplinary Appeals.
"State Bar Dismisses Bradley Misconduct Grievance," by Brandi Grissom at the Texas Tribune.
Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley today released a letter from the State Bar of Texas informing him that the agency has dismissed a grievance filed against him in the Michael Morton case.
"Today, I received written confirmation that the alleged grievance filed against me did NOT demonstrate any misconduct on my part," Bradley said in an email (the emphasis is his). "As the report from the Innocence Project indicated, the DA's office acted professionally and ethically in handling the Morton claim of innocence, arising from a 25-year old conviction through a different prosecutor."
Morton was exonerated last year after spending nearly 25 years in prison for his wife's murder in 1986. DNA evidence revealed that another man's biological material was mixed with Christine Morton's blood on a bandana found near the crime scene. The same DNA was linked to hair found at the scene of an unsolved Austin murder that happened in 1988, after Morton had been sentenced to life in prison.
And:
In November, the Texas Coalition on Lawyer Accountability filed grievances against Anderson and other prosecutors involved in the case, including Bradley. Bradley took over as prosecutor long after Morton was in prison, but he fought for six years against the DNA testing that eventually led to the exoneration. Bradley, however, has said that he did not know about evidence that was allegedly withheld during Morton's 1987 trial and that he fought the request for testing based on Anderson's advice.
Earlier coverage of the grievance filing begins at the link. Additional coverage of the Morton exoneration is also available.
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