On August 13th, 1986 in Texas, the day after his birthday, Michael Morton would return home to find his wife had been murdered in her own bed.  An investigation concluded that Morton was the lead suspect in the case and prosecutors began to build a case around him.  Morton’s case is often viewed as one of the most egregious examples of official misconduct in the United States as evidence that would have almost completely proven his innocence was withheld from defense and used against Morton in court.

 

During the trial, Morton had a forensic scientist testify that this could not have happened later than at 1 in the morning, although he admitted this was not solidly backed by science.  The prosecution also concluded that one of the hairs found in the bed was similar to that of Morton’s.  They argued that he had bludgeoned her in the stomach before ejaculating on her corpse.  

 

Morton was convicted and sentenced by the jury to life in prison.

 

How did this happen?  Initial signs of concealed exculpatory evidence were seen by the defense as the prosecution never called the lead investigator to the stand.  This was pointed out by the defense but not acted upon.  The prosecution team hid large amounts of evidence that shows that they must have known that he was innocent and they were pursuing a likely innocent man.  

 

There was a bandana that was found outside the house that was not ever tested because of fighting by the prosecution.  Additionally, the fact that his own three year old child who was present claimed that he saw the man come in during the day and it was not his father, the fact that neighbors claimed to have seen a green van parked outside of the house during the day, and the fact that records of his wife's Visa had been seen in San Antonio showing a flee from the scene were never shared with the defense or presented in court.  

 

After teaming up with the Innocence Project, Morton was finally able to retest the hair and DNA residue at the scene and was finally able to input the bandana for testing.  All of these pointed to a different man who had committed a similar crime and lived in Texas during the incident.  After 24 years, Morton was finally exonerated and set free.  

 

This case was a result of misleading forensic science evidence and prosecutorial misconduct.  The fact that Morton not only had to deal with the death of his wife but the fact that he had been blamed for it is horrible and what is worse is that this never should have passed in court.  The prosecutor is to blame for this horrible miscarriage of justice against a man that was clearly innocent based on evidence.  For this the prosecutor would in fact be punished but while he lost only his job and 96 hours of his life in prison, Morton would lose 8,995 days.