Guy Cleared of Murder Kills Again

After spending virtually 25 years in prison for the murder of his wife, Morton was released on October iv, 2011, and officially exonerated in December 2011. Deoxyribonucleic acid evidence implicated another man, who has also been tied to a similar Texas murder that occurred two years subsequently the murder of Morton's wife.

In 1986, Michael Morton was a supermarket managing director in Texas and a husband and male parent. Every bit he says of his family, "I've often felt how almost excruciatingly average we were, a clamper out of a demographic study: the house, the g, the kid, the car. Nosotros had everything but the lookout fence. It was good."

Michael Morton'southward life, however, took a horrific turn that same year: his wife was murdered in their bed, and he was convicted of that murder, despite any evidence pointing to his guilt and tremendous bear witness showing his innocence.

After spending most 25 years in prison for the murder of his wife, Morton was released on Oct 4, 2011, and officially exonerated in December 2011. DNA bear witness implicated another human, who has as well been tied to a similar Texas murder that occurred two years later on the murder of Morton'due south married woman.

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In Baronial 1986, Michael Morton celebrated his birthday at a eatery with his wife, Christine, and their iii-yr-old son. The next morning, Morton left a annotation on the bathroom vanity expressing disappointment that his married woman had declined to be intimate with him the dark before, but concluded the note with the words, "I beloved you lot." He and so left for work at about 5:30 a.m., arriving soon after.

Afterwards that morning, Christine'southward body was found in their bed. She had been bludgeoned to death with what appeared to have been a weapon made of wood. The sheets upon which she lay were stained with what was later determined to exist semen.

Investigation and Trial

The day after Christine'south body was constitute, police recovered a bloody bandana constitute at a construction site located about 100 yards from the Morton habitation.

Christine's mother told the police that the Mortons' son, Eric, had been present during the murder. Eric had told his grandmother that the murderer was not Michael but a "monster." He described the crime scene and murder in item, and specifically said that his "Daddy was not home" when the murder occurred.

Upon questioning the Mortons' neighbors, police were told that a man had repeatedly parked a green van on the street backside the Mortons' firm and walked off into a nearby wooded area. Police records also indicated that Christine Morton's missing credit card had peradventure been recovered in a San Antonio, Texas jewelry store, and that a San Antonio officer stated that he could identify the woman who had attempted to use the card. According to Morton's defence lawyers, none of this testify was turned over to them at the trial.

When defense attorneys learned that the prosecution did not plan to call Sergeant Don Woods, the main investigator in the case, to the stand, they suspected that the prosecution might be concealing potentially exculpatory evidence. The defense raised this concern with the trial approximate, who ordered the prosecution to turn over all reports past Sergeant Woods so that he could conduct a thorough review. Evidence concerning Eric'south bystander business relationship, the dark-green van, and Christine Morton's credit carte were all absent from the records given to the judge.

The prosecution presented no witnesses or physical evidence that tied Morton to the crime, just they hypothesized that he had browbeaten Christine to death because she refused to take sex with him on his altogether.  On Feb 17, 1987, Michael Morton was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.

Postal service-Conviction Investigation

In 2005, the Innocence Projection and the law house, Raley & Bowick, filed a move requesting additional DNA testing on items of prove from the offense scene. The court granted permission to test some of the items, excluding the encarmine bandana found near the Mortons' house. One time once more, tests could not exclude Morton as the source of the Dna collected from the bed.

V years later on, in 2011, Morton was finally granted testing on the bandana and hair from the bandana, and a Deoxyribonucleic acid testing lab reported that testing on the bandana revealed both Christine Morton'due south DNA and the Dna of an unknown male.

The unknown male DNA profile was run through the CODIS databank (a DNA database system) and matched Mark Norwood, a convicted felon from California, who had a criminal record in Texas and who lived in Texas at the time of Christine Morton's murder. Further investigation by Morton's lawyers and the Travis County District Attorney revealed that a hair from Norwood was as well establish at the scene of the murder of Debra Masters Bakery in Travis County. Baker was, similar Christine Morton, bludgeoned to death in her bed; her murder occurred ii years after Christine's death, while Michael Morton was in prison.

Michael Morton was released on October 4, 2011, after spending virtually 25 years in prison house. He was officially exonerated on December xix, 2011.

Life later on Exoneration

"I've been out about five months now. I came out of the gym the other morning, and the sun was just over the horizon and there was orange and purple and a little bit of a breeze that was drying the perspiration on my forehead and information technology felt and so good. I've been going to restaurants looking for things I accept never eaten. I had crabmeat manicotti recently. It was succulent. My bad days are good."

Subsequently his release, Michael Morton moved in with his parents in Freedom Urban center, Texas, and later started renting a business firm in nearby Kilgore. In March 2013, he married Cynthia May Chessman, a member of the church he has attended since his exoneration, and they are happily living in Texas.

Prosecutorial Misconduct Finding:During the course of the mail-confidence DNA litigation, Morton's attorneys filed a Public Information Deed request, and finally obtained the other documents showing Morton's innocence in the prosecution'southward file that had been withheld at trial. The Innocence Project filed a brief on Mr. Morton's behalf and the Texas Supreme Courtroom ordered an unprecedented Courtroom of Inquiry to determine whether Ken Anderson, the former prosecutor who went on to go a estimate, had committed misconduct.

The Court of Inquiry ruled there to be probable cause to believe Mr. Anderson had violated criminal laws by concealing testify and charged him with criminal antipathy and tampering with prove for concealing the exculpatory data from the trial guess and Morton's defence team. The State Bar of Texas too brought ideals charges against Mr. Anderson. In early November 2013, Mr. Anderson entered a plea to criminal contempt and agreed to serve a 10-mean solar day jail judgement. He resigned from his position as a district court judge and permanently surrendered his police license.

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Source: https://innocenceproject.org/cases/michael-morton/