Michael Morton speaks — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00michael morton a man who served 25 years
2. 0:02in prison for a murder he did not commit
3. 0:04is sharing his story tonight it's part
4. 0:06of his crusade for prosecutor
5. 0:08accountability and the importance of dna
6. 0:10testing in the justice system kxan
7. 0:12shannon wolfson spoke to morton about
8. 0:14his mission and what's happened in the
9. 0:16years since he learned that dna testing
10. 0:18proved he did not kill his wife
11. 0:21things are going along quite well
12. 0:23actually michael morton is getting ready
13. 0:24to celebrate his first free birthday in
14. 0:2725 years on my last birthday
15. 0:31i was wearing white
16. 0:32and
17. 0:33i was in the land of concrete and steel
18. 0:35it was his birthday last year august
19. 0:3712th while he was sitting in a prison
20. 0:39cell when he learned from his lawyers
21. 0:41the dna testing he had been fighting so
22. 0:43hard for
23. 0:44finally proved he did not murder his
24. 0:46wife christine who was beaten to death
25. 0:48in their williamson county home in 1986.
26. 0:51my overall goal is
27. 0:52to prevent what happened to me from
28. 0:54having somebody else morton and his
29. 0:56attorney john raley fought to have a
30. 0:57piece of evidence in the case tested for
31. 0:59dna fought for six years with williamson
32. 1:02county district attorney john bradley
33. 1:04who resisted the testing this is the
34. 1:06sort of case that should be a wake-up
35. 1:07call to all of us in front of a group of
36. 1:09criminal defense attorneys thursday
37. 1:11night in austin morton and raley shared
38. 1:13the story of their battle for dna
39. 1:15testing people need to remember that by
40. 1:18by prosecuting and convicting an
41. 1:20innocent man a guilty party is free to
42. 1:23commit other crimes morton also has made
43. 1:26it his mission to change the law when it
44. 1:28comes to accountability for prosecutors
45. 1:30those who fail to share evidence with
46. 1:32the defense as he believes was done in
47. 1:34his case make them eligible for a small
48. 1:36fine
49. 1:37and then also have their license at
50. 1:38stake if they get caught doing something
51. 1:40wrong but i don't want to up in the
52. 1:42system i don't want a complete
53. 1:43revolution just this little change but
54. 1:45it's not been all work for morton since
55. 1:47his release last fall he's reconnected
56. 1:49with his son he's relishing the role of
57. 1:52grandfather he's bought a little
58. 1:53property and he's in a relationship and
59. 1:56for his first free birthday in a long
60. 1:58time he wants nothing more than all of
61. 2:01that everything is so nice now that
62. 2:05this sounds kind of lame but i really
63. 2:06don't want anything special this is
64. 2:08special
65. 2:09michael morton's birthday as we
66. 2:11mentioned is august the 12th his wife
67. 2:13was murdered on august 13th he will also
68. 2:16be marking that somber anniversary for
69. 2:18the first time as a free man in the
70. 2:20studio shannon wolfson kxan news