Evidence of Innocence: The case of Michael Morton — Transcript

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1. 0:01it's not every day that a convicted
2. 0:03murderer clears his name and then
3. 0:05returns to court to argue that his
4. 0:08prosecutor should be prosecuted but
5. 0:10that's what happened recently in a
6. 0:12high-profile case in Texas that raises
7. 0:15broader questions about the power
8. 0:17prosecutors have and what happens when
9. 0:19they're accused of misusing it at the
10. 0:22center of this story is a man named
11. 0:24Michael Morton he was once an ordinary
12. 0:27citizen with a wife a child a job and no
13. 0:30criminal record whatsoever but then he
14. 0:34was sent to prison for
15. 0:38life the story will continue in a
16. 0:46moment in 1987 in a very public trial
17. 0:50Michael Morton was convicted of brutally
18. 0:52murdering his wife as he was led away to
19. 0:55prison he insisted he was innocent I
20. 0:59would do this I'm sorry what I did not
21. 1:01do this hardly anyone believed him until
22. 1:06last year when he was exonerated by DNA
23. 1:10testing let's go by then he had spent
24. 1:13nearly 25 years of his life Behind Bars
25. 1:17what was it like for you to walk from
26. 1:20the court a free man it was so alien at
27. 1:24first it wasn't quite
28. 1:26real we stepped out of the courtroom and
29. 1:30it was a beautiful sunny day but the sun
30. 1:33felt so good on my face on my skin I
31. 1:36could just feel like I was just drinking
32. 1:37in the sunshine had you felt it in 25
33. 1:41years I'd felt the Sun but I hadn't felt
34. 1:44free
35. 1:46sun and free sun feels different it does
36. 1:49it sounds stupid but it feels different
37. 1:52his nightmare began on a summer
38. 1:54afternoon in
39. 1:551986 when he came home from work in
40. 1:58Austin Texas and found the sheriff at
41. 2:01his house a neighbor had discovered his
42. 2:04three-year-old son Eric alone in the
43. 2:06yard and his wife Christine bludgeon to
44. 2:10death in the bedroom I didn't really
45. 2:12have the opportunity to grief for her
46. 2:14because it everything changed so rapidly
47. 2:17away from her to me so were you a
48. 2:21suspect from the very first moment yeah
49. 2:23if all the questions were um adversarial
50. 2:27accusatory it became clear to me that
51. 2:29that the sheriff showed up looked around
52. 2:33and okay husband did this and not long
53. 2:36after that you were arrested about 6
54. 2:39weeks yeah they literally pulled my son
55. 2:42out of my arms cuz he was screaming for
56. 2:45me and you know the little hand is out
57. 2:46and they're he's being pulled away
58. 2:50and that was one of the worst
59. 2:53Parts Williamson County district
60. 2:55attorney Ken Anderson prosecuted Michael
61. 2:58Morton he told the jury Morton killed
62. 3:01his wife because she wouldn't have sex
63. 3:03with him there was no murder weapon or
64. 3:06direct evidence linking Morton to the
65. 3:08crime but Anderson argued persuasively
66. 3:11that Morton was violent and unremorseful
67. 3:15it got sickening after a while to watch
68. 3:16him cry at the wrong times and he seemed
69. 3:19only to cry for himself Morton and his
70. 3:22original trial lawyers always suspected
71. 3:25there was evidence that would have
72. 3:27helped establish his innocence that and
73. 3:30wasn't telling them about but they were
74. 3:32never given full access to the police
75. 3:35reports in the prosecutor's file it
76. 3:37wasn't until recently after years of
77. 3:40legal wrangling that lawyers Barry Sheek
78. 3:43and Nina Morrison of the Innocence
79. 3:45Project and John rley a private attorney
80. 3:48in Houston finally got a look at
81. 3:50Anderson's file from the original trial
82. 3:53it was one of those moments where you
83. 3:55almost you almost faint to hold in my
84. 3:58hand a copy of a document that the
85. 4:00district attorney at the time had and
86. 4:02didn't tell anybody about it on the
87. 4:04defense side that document would have
88. 4:06proved what would have proved that
89. 4:08Michael Morton is innocent he's talking
90. 4:11about this police report in which
91. 4:13Christine's mother told investigators
92. 4:16that her three-year-old grandson Eric
93. 4:18had witnessed the murder and described
94. 4:21to her in detail how he saw a monster
95. 4:23with a big mustache kill his mother he
96. 4:27hit mommy Eric says in the report was
97. 4:29Daddy there his grandmother asks no
98. 4:32Mommy and Eric was there there was also
99. 4:36this report in which a neighbor
100. 4:38described seeing a suspicious man Park a
101. 4:40green van on the street and walk into
102. 4:43the wooded area behind the Morton home
103. 4:47Barry Sheek says this is precisely the
104. 4:49kind of information a prosecutor is
105. 4:52legally and ethically obligated to
106. 4:55disclose sitting in the prosecutor's
107. 4:57file and sitting in this Sheriff's file
108. 5:00there was a set of documents which if
109. 5:03they had been revealed and the defense
110. 5:05had seen them Michael Morton would have
111. 5:07been acquitted Ken Anderson went on to
112. 5:10be named prosecutor of the year in Texas
113. 5:13and since 2002 he's been a district
114. 5:16judge in the same court where Michael
115. 5:18Morton was convicted all those years
116. 5:22Morton languished in prison my first
117. 5:25cell I could stretch out my arms and
118. 5:28before my elbows lck I was touching both
119. 5:31walls and you got two grown men in there
120. 5:34the food's
121. 5:35abysmal you're never alone the system
122. 5:38controls every part of your life it's
123. 5:40Soul destroy yeah it it eats at you kind
124. 5:44of like a rust the one thing he told us
125. 5:47that sustained him was the thought of
126. 5:50his son he was allowed to see Eric for
127. 5:53two hours once every 6 months when he
128. 5:57was about 12 or 13 years old he he wrote
129. 5:59to you and said he didn't want to come
130. 6:01and see you anymore was your heart
131. 6:03broken can't really limit it to your
132. 6:06heart everything it's just uh when
133. 6:09you're a child says they no longer want
134. 6:12to come see
135. 6:14you and then when he turned 18 what did
136. 6:17he do I got noticed in the mail that he
137. 6:20was going to be adopted by my uh
138. 6:22sister-in-law and her husband both good
139. 6:25folks and he was going to change his
140. 6:28name and what did that do to you that
141. 6:31was uh when I hit rock bottom that was
142. 6:33the end of it that's when I had nothing
143. 6:37left what finally gave him back his
144. 6:40freedom last fall was DNA evidence after
145. 6:43fighting the District Attorney's office
146. 6:45for 5 years the Innocence Project won
147. 6:48permission to do DNA testing on a bloody
148. 6:51bandana found near the crime scene on it
149. 6:55the lab found Christine Morton's blood
150. 6:58and the DNA of a known felon Mark Allan
151. 7:01Norwood who's since been arrested for
152. 7:03her murder his DNA has also been matched
153. 7:07to the crime scene of another young
154. 7:09woman who was murdered after Christine
155. 7:12it's not just that an innocent man was
156. 7:15put in jail it was that a killer went
157. 7:19free yes I think Eric described him well
158. 7:21as a monster they they never looked for
159. 7:24the monster so just to be clear from
160. 7:27both of you you believe that Ken
161. 7:29Anderson the prosecutor in Michael's
162. 7:31case willfully deliberately withheld
163. 7:34evidence we believe that there's
164. 7:35probable cause to believe that he
165. 7:39violated a court order withheld
166. 7:41exculpatory evidence and violated other
167. 7:43laws of the State of Texas so the first
168. 7:46thing that anybody wants to know hearing
169. 7:48that is why why would he do that you
170. 7:50know I've seen a lot of these cases and
171. 7:52I cannot get inside of his mind I can
172. 7:55just talk generally that you know
173. 7:58sometimes people
174. 7:59uh break rules because they want to win
175. 8:02I want to formally apologize for the
176. 8:05system's failure to Mr Morton in his
177. 8:09only public statement late last year
178. 8:11judge Anderson told reporters a mistake
179. 8:14had been made but he also said this in
180. 8:17my heart I know there was no misconduct
181. 8:21whatsoever under oath Anderson has said
182. 8:24there's no way he wouldn't have told the
183. 8:26defense about those police reports in
184. 8:28his file
185. 8:30but he couldn't specifically remember
186. 8:32doing so he wouldn't speak with us but
187. 8:35his lawyer Eric Nichols a former deputy
188. 8:38Attorney General of Texas told us those
189. 8:40reports in his client's file would not
190. 8:43have been enough to acquit Michael
191. 8:45Morton to suggest that my client did
192. 8:47something wrong or committed a criminal
193. 8:49law violation or violated the rules of
194. 8:51ethics of the State of Texas or
195. 8:53elsewhere is completely unwarranted well
196. 8:56let me read to you what um one of
197. 8:58Michael Morton's original defense
198. 9:00attorney says on this subject Bill white
199. 9:01in his sworn affidavit he says I had
200. 9:05absolutely no idea at the time that Eric
201. 9:08had made a very specific statement about
202. 9:09witnessing the murder in progress it is
203. 9:12clear to me that conscious decisions
204. 9:13were made to conceal evidence and or
205. 9:16ignore the truth in spite of the 25
206. 9:20years that seems to be very clear to me
207. 9:23is it to you and it's also clear to my
208. 9:25client that he would have had some
209. 9:27discussions with the defense Council
210. 9:28about Eric Morton the precise details
211. 9:32unfortunately are lost to the sands of
212. 9:35time take him at his word well that's
213. 9:37all what what you're what you're talking
214. 9:38about Laura we are engaging in
215. 9:42speculation about uh matters that
216. 9:44occurred 25 years ago oh rise please in
217. 9:48February a Texas judge agreed with
218. 9:50Michael Morton's legal team that there
219. 9:53was probable cause to believe Ken
220. 9:55Anderson violated the law and Anderson
221. 9:58is now the subject of a special criminal
222. 10:02inquiry that's extremely rare Studies
223. 10:05have shown prosecutors are hardly ever
224. 10:08criminally charged or disciplined for
225. 10:10serious error or
226. 10:12misconduct and one thing Ken Anderson
227. 10:14doesn't have to worry about is being
228. 10:16sued for damages by Michael Morton
229. 10:19because the Supreme Court has ruled that
230. 10:21prosecutors have absolute immunity from
231. 10:24civil lawsuits for their legal work
232. 10:27doctors lawyers policemen there are all
233. 10:28kinds of people who do their job with
234. 10:31limited immunity or no immunity it just
235. 10:34seems hard to understand why prosecutors
236. 10:36have to have a different standard to
237. 10:37everybody else seeing that Justice is
238. 10:40done in many instances requires very
239. 10:43difficult judgments and to come back
240. 10:45behind those prosecutors and second
241. 10:47guess them or sue them would throw a
242. 10:52wrench into that system of prosecutors
243. 10:56Seeking Justice I have to say there's a
244. 10:58certain irony in hearing you say it's
245. 11:01the job of a prosecutor to seek Justice
246. 11:03right because in this particular case
247. 11:05that's exactly what Michael Morton did
248. 11:07not get with the benefit of hindsight
249. 11:10with the benefit of DNA test results
250. 11:12that came available in 2011 you're
251. 11:14absolutely correct but the legacy of
252. 11:17this case the Morton case should not be
253. 11:20an effort to vilify prosecutors either
254. 11:24my client individually or all
255. 11:25prosecutors in general now I want to
256. 11:28make it very very clear that I don't
257. 11:30believe that there's an epidemic of
258. 11:32prosecutorial misconduct in this country
259. 11:34on the other hand it does happen and
260. 11:36this is a very important moment we've
261. 11:39had a whole series of cases in this
262. 11:40country that have focused attention on
263. 11:43this issue cases like the corruption
264. 11:45trial of former Alaska Senator Ted
265. 11:48Stevens a special investigator found
266. 11:50systemic concealment of evidence that
267. 11:53would have helped the Senator's case in
268. 11:56North Carolina this man spent 8 years in
269. 11:59prison even though someone else had
270. 12:01confessed to the crime his lawyers say
271. 12:04the prosecutor never told them in
272. 12:07Louisiana this man discovered a few
273. 12:09weeks before his scheduled execution
274. 12:12that prosecutors hadn't disclosed a
275. 12:13blood test that exonerated
276. 12:16him if you did those things if you did
277. 12:19the sort of stuff where you were hiding
278. 12:21evidence from a homicide investigation
279. 12:24they' lock you up in a minute that's the
280. 12:26first time I've sensed any kind of anger
281. 12:28in you I try to be very forgiving but
282. 12:32I'll be honest not only the actual
283. 12:35murderer responsible for this but the
284. 12:38people who put me there I wanted to get
285. 12:40back at them and uh when I
286. 12:45finally let that go and put it away it's
287. 12:49like I dropped 25 lbs I just
288. 12:53felt Michael Morton was recently
289. 12:56reunited with his son he's received
290. 12:59nearly $2 million under a Texas law that
291. 13:03provides compensation for people who are
292. 13:06wrongfully convicted I don't have a lot
293. 13:08of things really driving me but one of
294. 13:11the things is I don't want this to
295. 13:12happen to anybody else Revenge isn't the
296. 13:15issue here Revenge I know doesn't
297. 13:18work but accountability
298. 13:21works it's what balances out it's the
299. 13:24equilibrium it's the it's it's the
300. 13:27social glue in a way because if you're
301. 13:29not count
302. 13:32accountable then you can do anything