According to Paul Cates of The Innocence Project, the judge's ruling came in response to a report submitted by the Innocence Project asking the court to recommend a Court of Inquiry. That body enables a unique Texas legal procedure that can be initiated by a judge, to investigate whether Anderson committed wrongdoing by refusing to turn over to the trial court as ordered evidence pointing to Morton's innocence. If the judge or a jury sides with the bar, the judge would decide a penalty ranging from public reprimand to disbarment.
Morton always maintained that his wife's murder was committed by a third party intruder. The Innocence Project conducted depositions with key witnesses and uncovered other evidence showing that Anderson did not turn over the transcript of the victim's mother telling lead investigator Sgt. Don Wood that Morton's three-year-old son told her that Morton was not the attacker, a message to Wood dated two days after the murder reporting that what appeared to be the victim's Visa card was recovered at a store in San Antonio, and a report from a neighbor observing someone staking out the Morton's house before the murder.
Morton's defense attorneys suspected all along that the prosecution was in possession of evidence pointing to Morton's innocence because of the prosecution's unusual decision not to call its lead investigator Sgt. Don Woods at trial. The defense raised these concerns with the trial judge who ordered Anderson to turn over all of the reports by Woods so that he could conduct a review of the reports. Although Anderson has repeatedly claimed to have no recollection of his prosecution of Morton, Anderson claimed for the first time in his deposition that his understanding of the trial judge's order was that he turn over only those reports by Woods dealing with Morton's statements.
This explanation contradicts all other participants' understanding of the judge's order and the judge's own handwritten notes on the pre-trial hearing docket which state: "Court to conduct in camera [in chambers] inspection of report of officer Don Wood in connection with D[efendant']s Brady motion."
Evidence suggesting Morton's innocence, including a bloody bandana found near the crime scene, was kept from the defense. DNA testing of the bandana led to Morton's exoneration in 2011, and implicated another man who is also suspected of subsequently murdering another woman. Anderson's successor as D.A., John Bradley, who fought against allowing DNA testing in Morton's case, has said he now believes he was wrong, adding, "We shouldn't set up barriers to the introduction of new evidence."
According to the bar's lawsuit, Anderson violated professional conduct rules by withholding five items. They include a memo to the sheriff's lead investigator in the case regarding a tip that a check made out to the victim was cashed nine days after she was killed; a phone message to the investigator that the victim's credit card was recovered in San Antonio; and a sheriff's department report from neighbors describing a man parking a van on the street behind the Mortons' home several time before the August 1986 killing.
The bar also alleges he withheld the transcript of a taped interview between the investigator and Morton's mother-in-law; and a condensed transcript of the taped interview.
The taped interview included the victim's mother saying her 3-year-old grandson told her that he witnessed the killing, gave details about it and said his father wasn't home at the time. Morton, who was convicted on circumstantial evidence, maintained he was working when the murder took place and that an intruder was responsible for his wife's death.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
2
2
2
