"Important move forward on holding both sides of court accountable," is the title of Bob Ray Sanders' column in today's Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Here's the beginning:
What happened to Michael Morton should never happen to any human being anywhere, especially in a country where the word justice is righteously regarded as a major pillar of our democratic republic.
He should never have been charged with a crime, much less indicted, convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
Thanks be to God and an organization called the Innocence Project, Morton was officially exonerated in December on charges of killing his wife in 1986, but not before he had spent 25 years in the Texas prison system.
In a statement to the court after charges were formally dismissed, Morton said, "Thank God this wasn't a capital case."
Indeed, otherwise he would likely have been executed before we learned of his innocence.
But Morton's case, one of 289 DNA-related exonerations in the country and more than 40 in Texas in the last 10 years, shines a glaring light on a more chilling and sinister issue involving criminal prosecutions, particularly in the Lone Star State.
His lawyers contend that Morton wasn't just a victim of mistaken identity, but a casualty of prosecutorial misconduct. Specifically they allege that the prosecutor in the case, Ken Anderson, who was then the Williamson County district attorney, deliberately withheld evidence that pointed to Morton's innocence.
Earlier coverage of the court of inquiry ordered in the Morton exoneration begins at the link.
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