There is no way the legal system can give Michael Morton back the 25 years he spent in prison for a crime he did not commit. But the Legislature can — and should — try correct the flaws in the system that stole his freedom. It can and should make the system more accountable when it fails. A bill filed this week by state Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, would help achieve those goals. We urge the Legislature to advance the bill and take other action to prevent wrongful convictions involving prosecutor misconduct. As demonstrated in the Morton case, wrongful convictions leave communities vulnerable to criminals who remain free because others are serving time for their deeds.
Wrongul convictions won through prosecutorial tactics such as hiding or suppressing evidence or information favorable to the defense are morally wrong. But as we’re seeing in Texas, wrongful convictions also are costly, totaling about $65 million in compensation since 1992 to people who were freed after spending time in prison for crimes they did not commit.
And that is the aim of Whitmire’s Senate Bill 825. It is an important step in addressing flaws in the system, but it should not be the only action the Legislature takes to clean up flaws in Texas’ legal system. Whitmire chairs the Senate Committee on Criminal Justice.
The measure would reset the statute of limitations for exonerated Texans who allege that prosecutors improperly hid key evidence or information favorable to helping defendants prove their innocence. If the Legislature passes Whitmire’s bill, exonerees would have four years from the date of their release from prison to file a grievance with the State Bar of Texas, which oversees attorney discipline. Under current law, those who are wrongfully convicted can be denied their day in court on a technicality because the statute of limitations now begins at the time a violation occurs. It does allow time to be extended if a violation could not be discovered earlier because of “fraud or concealment.”
Another provision of the bill relies on the time-tested method of shaming bad prosecutors who engage in unethical or unlawful behavior to win convictions. It requires that prosecutors be publicly reprimanded if misconduct is found, removing the option of a private rebuke. Shining a public light on bad behavior can be a powerful deterrent. For some time, it’s been evident that the system is not tough enough in discouraging or punishing prosecutors who engage in misconduct. It took the Morton case, however, to drive home that point. In filing the bill, Whitmire cited the Morton case as a “prime example of the imperfections of our justice system.”
Morton served almost 25 years in prison for the murder of his wife, Christine, before DNA tests confirmed his innocence and he was freed in 2011. He has accused former Willaimson County District Attorney Ken Anderson of hiding favorable evidence from defense lawyers in his 1987 trial. Anderson, now a state district judge in Georgetown, has denied the accusations. Following news reports on the Morton case and an American-Statesman editorial calling for action by the State Bar of Texas, a bar disciplinary committee filed a lawsuit in October accusing Anderson of violating his duty as a prosecutor by withholding evidence that could have supported Morton’s contention that an unknown intruder killed his wife. If the accusations are upheld, Anderson faces reprimand, disbarment or a temporary loss of his law license.
Anderson’s legal team has challenged the lawsuit on several grounds, including a claim that the statute of limitations bars the filing of a grievance tied to events that happened nearly 25 years ago — a technicality that Whitmire’s bill will close if the Legislature passes the bill.
Public safety also should weigh heavily in advancing the bill. In the Morton case, the person who was ultimately indicted on a charge of killing Morton’s wife, Mark Alan Norwood, has been linked by DNA evidence to another murder that happened after Christine Morton was killed in 1986. Norwood faces capital murder charges in the 1988 beating death of Debra Masters Baker of Austin.
The solution proposed by Whitmire is overdue. In 2003, long before the Morton case, we pointed out problems regarding misconduct by some prosecutors and urged the State Bar of Texas and the Legislature to hold prosecutors who cheat or break the rules accountable. That case involved Swisher County District Attorney Terry McEachern, who obtained tainted drug convictions against about a dozen residents of Tulia based on evidence fabricated by a single law officer. The disciplinary petition the state bar filed against McEachern also accused McEachern of not conveying information to defense attorneys about his knowledge of the criminal history of the officer, Tom Coleman, whose fabrications were the basis for wrongful convictions that were ultimately overturned.
As we noted, Whitmire’s bill should not be the only action the Legislature takes to address deficiencies that continue to result in people being convicted and imprisoned for crimes they did not commit. But it’s a key part of a larger solution.
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