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Nov 18, 2011

Prosecutorial Misconduct: Blanco Edition

2 to 1 says this is a common occurrence.  Just like the MF Global thing is.

Oh, by the way...here is the race thing again.

Michael Morton is white, as was his wife.  So were the prosecutors who convicted him.  What's more, he was convicted in overwhelmingly white Williamson County by a jury that presumably was overwhelmingly white.  All of this is at odds with the favorite liberal media narrative about horrific miscarriages of justice -- that they're typically committed by white prosecutors and white juries who allegedly harbor a racial animus against hapless black defendants and other minorities.

In Texas, a Tragic Miscarriage of Justice Fails to Excite the Liberal Media

District Judge Ken Anderson --  the lead prosecutor who convicted Morton 25 years ago -- publicly apologized to Morton and those adversely affected by the wrongful conviction.  The legal system had suffered a "system's failure," Anderson admitted.  But he denied charges that prosecutors hid evidence that would have bolstered Morton's defense.

The case against Morton was built upon circumstantial evidence -- including what prosecutors in Williamson County, just outside the capital of Austin, had portrayed as Morton's supposedly inappropriate reactions to news of his wife's murder and a claim that there were some tensions in his marriage.

Last week, another stunning development made headlines: police arrested a suspect in Christine Morton's murder -- Mark Alan Norwood, 57, a dishwasher in Bastrop, Texas.  He has a long criminal history.  A bandana found near the crime scene contained DNA linked to Norwood and his victim.  He has yet to be charged in Baker's death.

Morton's lawyers are now pursuing Anderson and former assistant district attorney Mike Davis, now in private practice, claiming that they withheld evidence.  Among other things, they want to know why a transcript from Christine Morton's mother was not made available to defense lawyers.  She told the case's lead investigator that the couple's three-year-old son told her that a "monster" -- not his father -- had beaten his mother to death
The Texas attorney general plans to reinvestigate the murder case, and the State Bar of Texas, in charge of lawyer discipline, is undertaking its own investigation focusing on Anderson and Davis.

 

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