Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies. (Andy Dufresne- The Shawshank Redemption)

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.**