10.02.11
Media digging into Michael Morton conviction 24 years ago
Today the Statesman has a long article on the Murder conviction of Michael Morton, Circumstantial case convicting Morton of murder now under attack.
Legs buckling as his guilty verdict was read aloud, Michael Morton dropped into a chair, laid his head on the defense table and sobbed.
“I didn’t do this,” Morton told the court 24 years ago. “That’s all I can say. I did not do this.”
New evidence raises the distinct possibility that Morton was telling the truth, that another man brutally murdered his wife in their Williamson County home and moved on to commit additional crimes — possibly including a 1988 murder in Austin — while Morton spent the next quarter-century in prison.
The investigation of that new evidence is proceeding.
But back in 1987, when Morton was convicted of murder in a case based on circumstantial evidence, everybody who mattered — from investigators to jurors — was absolutely certain that he killed his wife, Christine, and callously left their 3-year-old son, Eric, alone at the murder scene.
According to an Austin American-Statesman review of trial transcripts and exhibits entered into evidence:
• The sheriff zeroed in on Morton almost immediately and was ready to make an arrest within a week of the murder.
• The medical examiner, using a questionable technique, declared a time of death that destroyed Morton’s alibi.
• The prosecutor presented a blistering condemnation of Morton as cruel, manipulative and sexually abnormal.
In the end, 12 jurors needed less than two hours to find Morton guilty of murder, then another 30 minutes to dispense the maximum sentence: life in prison.
And KXAN is going to air an investigative report tomorrow, A 24-year fight over murder conviction.
A Williamson County man in prison for 24 year for killing his wife, may be one step closer to making his case that he is innocent.
Michael Morton was convicted in the 1987 murder of his wife, Christine in their Round Rock Home. New DNA tests on a bandana found near the crime scene revealed Christine’s blood, co-mingled with DNA of a known violent offender.
Now, his attorneys are asking that he be freed and the man they believe is the real killer be brought to justice.
On Monday at 6 p.m., KXAN News will provide the background and what happens in next in the case.
Hopefully justice will come soon in this case.