Blackstone's
formulation (also known as Blackstone's
ratio or the Blackstone
ratio) is the principle that:
"It is better that ten guilty
persons escape than that one innocent suffer",
...as expressed by the English jurist William Blackstone in his seminal work, Commentaries
on the Laws of England, published in the 1760s.
In
light of the Christmas holidays, I want to end the year with a positive
story. This story is compelling because
it is one of a great wrongdoing, suffering, hope, and
ultimately---redemption. It is the
nightmare that turned into a dream. This is the story that warms the heart this
type of year and I want to share it with you.
This
is the tale of Michael Morton. He spent 25 years of his life behind bars based
on the immoral and illegal actions of an overzealous prosecutor. As a result of
many persons who did not give up on him, and believed in his innocence, he is
now a free man.
According
to the University of Michigan Law School, more than 2000 wrongfully convicted
people were exonerated between 1989 and 2012. That’s right, 2000 people! When
you think about the implications and horror of being wrongfully convicted and
locked up for almost a third of an average lifetime (or even a day for that
matter), the nightmare of that scenario is simply unthinkable.
After spending nearly 25 years in prison for the murder of his
wife, Michael Morton was released on October 4, 2011, and officially exonerated
in December. DNA evidence implicated another man, who has also been tied to a
similar Texas
murder that occurred two years after the murder of Morton’s wife.
According to sources, after celebrating his birthday at a
restaurant with his wife, Christine, and their three-year-old son, on August
12, 1986, Michael Morton and his family returned home. The next morning, Morton
left a note on the bathroom vanity expressing disappointment that his wife had
declined to make love to him the night before, but ending with the words, “I
love you.”
He then left for work at about 5:30 a.m., arriving half an hour
later; his co-workers would later testify that he did not act unusually.
Later that morning, Christine’s body was found. She appeared to
have been bludgeoned to death in her bed with a weapon made of wood. A wicker
basket and suitcase were piled on top of her. The sheets upon which she lay
were stained with what was later determined to be semen.
Christine’s mother told police that the Mortons’ three-year-old
son, Eric, had been present during the murder. According to Eric, the murderer
was not his daddy, but a “monster.”
Eric described the crime scene and murder in great detail, and
specifically said that his “Daddy” was “not home” when it happened.
Upon
questioning the Mortons’ neighbors, police were told that a man had repeatedly
parked a green van on the street behind the Mortons’ house and walked off into
a nearby wooded area. Police records also indicated that Christine Morton’s
missing Visa card may have been recovered in a San Antonio
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 defense lawyers, none of this evidence was
turned over to them at the trial. With a win-at-all-costs mentality, the
prosecutor was determined to see Morton go to prison, despite knowing full well
that there was evidence that showed him to be innocent. Truth be damned. It was the “notch in the gun belt” and conviction that
the prosecutor wanted.
When the defense learned that the prosecution did not plan to
call the chief investigator in the case, Sgt. Don Wood, to the stand, they
suspected that the prosecution might be concealing potential evidence helpful
to Morton. After the defense raised this issue with the judge, the prosecution
promised the court that all favorable evidence had been given to the defense as
required by long established criminal law principals of fairness and openness
of evidence related to prosecutions.
The prosecution presented no witnesses or physical evidence that
tied Morton to the crime. They hypothesized, in an emotional argument to the
jury, that he had beaten Christine to death because she refused to have sex
with him on his birthday. At the time, Morton had no arrests,
convictions, or history of violence against anyone, anytime, or anywhere---ever.
On February 17, 1987, Michael Morton was convicted of murder and
given a life sentence.
In 2005, the Innocence Project and the law firm of Raley &
Bowick in Houston
filed a motion requesting additional DNA testing on other items of evidence
from the crime scene.
Not surprisingly, The
District Attorney of Williamson County opposed the motion. The court
granted permission to test some of the items in evidence, but not others.
On June 30, 2011, DNA testing on a bandana found at the scene revealed
that it contained Christine Morton’s blood and hair. It also contained the DNA
of another, unknown male. The unknown male DNA profile was run through the
criminal history databank and matched a convicted felon from California ,
who also 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 pubic hair was also found at the scene of the
murder of Debra Masters Baker in Travis County Texas. Mrs. Baker was, like
Christine Morton, bludgeoned to death in her bed. Her murder occurred two years
after Christine’s death, while Michael Morton sat rotting in prison.
During the course of the DNA litigation, Morton’s attorneys
filed a Public Information Act request, and finally obtained the other
documents showing Morton’s innocence in the State’s file that had apparently
been withheld at trial and never turned over to Morton’s defense lawyers. At
the request of Morton’s attorneys, the Texas Supreme Court ordered a Court of
Inquiry into possible misconduct by the former Williamson County District
Attorney who prosecuted the Morton case, Ken Anderson.
Michael Morton was released on October 4, 2011, after spending
nearly 25 years in prison. He was officially exonerated on December 19, 2011.
Ken Anderson --
Morton's prosecutor who in 2001 became a judge -- pleaded no contest to a court
order to show cause for withholding exculpatory evidence. A judgment of
contempt from the clerk's office of the 26th Judicial District, Williamson County , Texas ,
said the court found "Anderson
in criminal contempt of court on the matters set out in the show cause
order..."
Far different from the fate
suffered by Morton, the former prosecutor only had to step down from his
position as a judge and agreed to 10 days in jail. He then, in a cruel twist of
irony, served only five of those days, because of good behavior behind bars. He
also agreed to a $500 fine, 500 hours of community service, and the loss of his
law license. Again, a far cry from the years
Morton spent wasting away in a prison cell.
It's "an extremely rare
instance, and perhaps the first time, that a prosecutor has been criminally
punished for failing to turn over exculpatory evidence,” according to the Innocence
Project (a legal clinic affiliated with Yeshiva University’s Cardozo Law
School).
The "historic
precedent demonstrates that when a judge orders a prosecutor to look in his
file and disclose exculpatory evidence, deliberate failure to do so is
punishable by contempt," said Barry Scheck, the project's co-director.
The organization is working with
the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association and the Innocence Project of
Texas to coordinate a review of Anderson 's
cases. Anderson ,
meanwhile, in a real show of class, has not publicly acknowledged any personal
wrongdoing. In court, he said he couldn't remember details of the case, and
that he and his family have been through false accusations over it.
"I apologize that
the system screwed up. I've beaten myself up on what I could have done different
and I don't know," he said, acknowledging Morton's "pain."
In prepared remarks
outside the courthouse, Anderson
repeated that he wanted to "formally apologize for the system's failure to
Mr. Morton and every other person who was affected by the verdict."
A statement released by
Anderson also said,
"This resolution resulted in a finding of contempt only. As stated on the
record, this resolution did not involve any plea by Mr. Anderson to any
criminal charge."
How interesting that when the shoe
is on the other foot, now the disgraced prosecutor seems to have memory trouble and a problem with the “system”? No word lower than disgusting comes
to mind at the moment, but I will continue to search for it.
Morton now works on
programs to help other innocent people behind bars. He has turned tragedy into
triumph.
Earlier this year,
Texas Gov. Rick Perry signed the Michael Morton Act into law, requiring
prosecutors to turn evidence over to defense lawyers in criminal cases, upon
the defendant's request, without the need for a court order.
The law will make the
state's criminal justice system "fairer and helping prevent wrongful
convictions," Perry said.
"Other people
often feel far more anger than I do," Morton says. "Vindication is
very, very good, but it's something I knew all along. ... It's really nothing
new for me."
He had a religious
epiphany in jail, and credits his newfound inner peace with the knowledge that
God "loves me." I take a somewhat less philosophical view than Mr.
Morton, I only hope that Rick Anderson finds it in his cold and rotten heart to
acknowledge his terrible actions, seek true forgiveness from his Maker, and
reach the higher state of humanity that Morton has achieved through his unfortunate
suffering.
He's now close with his
son -- and daughter-in-law, and granddaughter, who is named after Christine.
"I've never seen a more perfect child," Morton says.
"Life has come
full circle," his son Eric says. "...I do love him."
"The conundrums of
life, the philosophical paradoxes, the metaphysical problems -- I feel like I
get it now," Michael Morton says with a smile. "I understand
suffering and unfairness. I can't think of anything better to receive than
that. I'm good with this."
All I can say is Michael Morton is a better man than I think I
could ever be. To have the capacity to be so terribly and recklessly wronged,
punished unfairly, and still have the faith in humanity to forgive, is a story
that should make us all take pause to appreciate all that we love and live for,
and what truly is at the forefront of our hearts and minds.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
-Leonardo G. Renaud
**The Legal Sensei will be returning
next year with more of the stories that teach us, inspire us, and most
important of all---give us an opportunity to think.**