Texas Judge Sentenced For Concealing Evidence of Innocence

by Matt Clarke

In a week-long legal proceeding held in April 2013, special prosecutor Rusty Hardin presented evidence against then-sitting Williamson County District Judge Ken Anderson that as a prosecutor Anderson had suppressed evidence of innocence which resulted in the wrongful conviction of Michael Morton for the murder of his wife Christine. Hardin, a Houston defense attorney, was hired specially for the rare proceeding known as a “court of inquiry,” which is similar to a grand jury for government officials accused of wrongdoing. Unlike a grand jury, a court of inquiry permits officials to defend themselves. During the proceeding, Hardin sufficiently proved that Anderson intentionally committed a harmful act against Morton. The presiding District Judge Louis Sturns immediately issued an arrest warrant for Anderson and Anderson surrendered at the courthouse. Anderson was briefly booked into jail and then released.

"This court cannot think of a more intentionally harmful act than a prosecutor's conscious choice to hide mitigating evidence so as to create an uneven playing field for a defendant facing a murder charge and a life sentence," Sturns ruled.

Sturns found probable cause to believe that Anderson committed the felony of tampering with evidence by concealing records or documents and the misdemeanor of tampering with a government records by concealing official reports. Likewise, Sturns found that Anderson should be held in contempt of court for telling the judge at Morton's trial that there was no evidence favorable to Morton and failing to comply with that judge’s order to turn over all the reports and notes of the chief investigating officer assigned to the case.

Morton was present with his wife, Cynthia, and lawyers John Raley of Houston, Patricia Cummings of Round Rock and Nina Morrison of the Innocence Project, all of whom helped clear him of the 1987 murder conviction. Morton's wrongful conviction resulted in 25 years of incarceration. He was officially exonerated on December 19, 2011. As of 2012, Texas had paid him close to $2 million in compensation.

Among the items suppressed by Anderson was Morton's 3-year-old son's eyewitness statement that Morton was not present during the murder and interviews with neighbors who saw a man with a green van walking around casing the neighborhood near Morton's house shortly before the murder.

Morton would still be in prison had Christine's brother not discovered a bloody bandanna at the construction site of a new house along a route that could have been used to flee the murder scene. Investigators had seen and discounted the evidentiary value of the bandanna. They continued to do so until DNA tests, ordered as part of Morton's post-conviction appeal, revealed DNA from the victim, his wife Christine, and Mark Alan Norwood on the bandanna.

Norwood was convicted of the capital murder of Christine Morton and sentenced to life in prison. He was also indicted for the murder of Debra Masters Baker, a crime that occurred only a few miles from the Morton’s house, two years after Christine’s murder.

In a plea bargain deal, Anderson agreed to a ten day jail sentence. However, he only actually served four days before being released on November 18, 2013. Although he is the first Texas prosecutor ever sentenced to imprisonment for framing an innocent person, his punishment is light compared to Morton's 25 years or Ms. Baker's life, which may have been spared had Anderson properly investigated the murder instead of settling for convicting an innocent husband.

Sources: Texas Tribune, Associated Press, www.stateman.com

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