For the First Time Ever, a Prosecutor Will Go to Jail for Wrongfully Convicting an Innocent Man

The title sounds a bit outrageous. I'm not at all sure if this is the first time. It wouldn't surprise me. What did surprise me were the details, and I found them appalling.

Today in Texas, former prosecutor and judge Ken Anderson pled guilty to intentionally failing to disclose evidence in a case that sent an innocent man, Michael Morton, to prison for the murder of his wife. When trying the case as a prosecutor, Anderson possessed evidence that may have cleared Morton, including statements from the crime's only eyewitness that Morton wasn't the culprit. Anderson sat on this evidence, and then watched Morton get convicted. While Morton remained in prison for the next 25 years, Anderson's career flourished, and he eventually became a judge.

So dick right? One would think he would be getting some harsh punishment. 500 hours community service, 10 days in jail and loses his law license. Sent a man to prison wrongfully, for 25 YEARS. Gets 10 days in jail, loses his license and has to do community service... Not harsh enough in my opinion.

Fortunately, there is something very simple that judges across the country can do to eradicate this problem. All judges, state and federal, should issue the standing "ethical rule order" proposed by the Hon. Nancy Gertner and Innocence Project Co-Founder Barry Scheck. The proposed order requires prosecutors to disclose, pre-trial, all evidence that "tends to negate the guilt of the accused or mitigates the offense." Details regarding the proposed ethical rule order, including all the justifications supporting it, can be found in this article by Barry Scheck.

I kinda thought it was required to divulge all that kind of info. I'm certainly going to have to look into this further, but if it's not already a thing, it seems like it should be. I'm all for nailing scumbags, regardless what side of the law they align themselves with.

Link

reply to post by Domo1

the ONLY fair punishment for his crime would be to have all of the wealth he accumulated after this case 25+ years ago be given to the man who was wrongfully convicted. he should then serve an obligatory 25 year sentence with no chance for parole.

reply to post by Bob Sholtz


no soap on a rope that man....

go the justice system...oh i mean the injustice system

reply to post by Domo1


I like to think of myself as pro-law. But with that said, anyone who is supposed to enforce the law and yet breaks it should receive twice the penalty as far as I'm concerned.

reply to post by Bob Sholtz


Man I really feel like I'm missing something here. I will be happy if someone debunks.

Withhold evidence to help your case against someone and it seems like you should be in a lot deeper nasty than 10 days in jail and some community service. Regardless of the time they end up serving.

TDawgRex
reply to post by Domo1

 

I like to think of myself as pro-law. But with that said, anyone who is supposed to enforce the law and yet breaks it should receive twice the penalty as far as I'm concerned.

agreed but somehow they receive much much less

reply to post by Domo1


i have read the OP source , and googled 2 other tails of this farce - and my first question :

why did the defence barristers cross examination of the " only witness " not bring forth his [ the witnesses ] evidence ?

the prosecutor was corrupt - but others were either negligent or corrupt too

reply to post by Domo1


When I was in middle school most of my friends were of the hacker type. I remember one time specifically that 3 of my friends had 500 hours community service because they hacked porn sites and made the sites pay them as employees. They only got caught for being 15 and "selling" porn, not for hacking...

In any case they got 500 hours community service for almost pulling off thousands of dollars in theft.
A real life human soul seems to be worth WAY more than that to me..

If a judge is found to be knowingly in contempt of court they should go to jail for one year. If they are found to be in contempt in a murder case they should go for 5 years or the minimum sentence (in the wrongly judged case) which ever is greater.

You know what? I am LIVING this nightmare, right now, and have been, with my son. The entire county court system is in on it, and you know what?

Without money, and I mean LOTS OF MONEY, no one cares. We have proof. Lots of proof. The DA was "asked to resign" after falsifying evidence or witholding evidence in cases to increase his prosecution rate, and make the county look good.

Some, a very limited few, of his cases are being reheard, under the cover and protection of the court. No one is talking, and no one will.

This is the third or fourth DA the county has lost to corruption, all quietly swept under the rug. The corruption is mind boggling, from the jail to the judges, to the Prosecutors office.

The DA that prosecuted his case went on to be HIS JUDGE, who then denied him bail. Can you say conflict in interest? It took a court battle alone, to get him to recuse himself, and then they refused a new bond hearing, even though the first was invalid on it's face. He sat in jail, in forced lockdown, for over two years, in isolation, before trial. He was denied speedy trial. His civil rights were violated by locking him in isolation for over two years before he was convicted. That alone was illegal.

And no one cares, no one will listen, because money talks, and I don't have any. Certainly not the 100k they are baiting me for.

So, he sits, railroaded, hidden and falsified evidence, documents, a fake indictment, and no one cares. 25 years for something he didn't do

And in the meantime, he lost his common law wife of 7 years who just died, and the kids, who went back to her abusive ex. Terrified, and abused again.

But for that almight dollar...

reply to post by Domo1


If only this would happen to the judge in the Richard Fine case. He was never charged with a crime. LINK. Fine revealed the illegal pay the judges were receiving. He went to jail for showing the evidence and being persistent.

reply to post by Libertygal


i just want to say I feel for you and wish you the best of luck, you are in my thoughts and I hope you come out on top from this. The (in)justice system in this country is wholly broken and railroads the poor any chance it can get. Judges, prosecutors, cops, and lawmakers are all corrupted evil souless cretins working in cahoots at the detriment of the general population. It truly is sad and makes me sick to my stomach.

reply to post by James1982


I appreciate your kind words, I really do. However, at this point, I see no end in sight for it. Only a lucky few actually get discovery and get the help they really need.

As is displayed in this story, what they did to an innocent man literally destroyed his life. It will never be the same.

And what suffering did the person guilty of this get? Certainly not what would be deemed fair by any onlooker, let alone the poor soul he did this to. The punishment certainly did not fit the crime, but the one thing the innocent man got was his freedom.

You have no idea how many there are that are truly innocent, that go undiscovered, and how many will die in prisons and jails, not guilty of anything besides being unable to fight the corruption because they are too poor.

There is an old joke about everyone in jail is innocent. That's not true. I have seen and heard tge guilty admit it. By the same token, there are many that really are innocent, and it is no laughing matter.

Having lived through this has changed my mind on the death penalty. I was once an avid supporter of the death penalty, but no longer. If there is the possibility an innocent man may die, I say that is one innocent life too many. I totally reversed my opinion.

If a man cannot get decent representation on a lesser crime, or, as outlined in the above article, then the chances are, innocent people may be put to death.

Domo1
reply to post by Bob Sholtz

 

Man I really feel like I'm missing something here. I will be happy if someone debunks.

Withhold evidence to help your case against someone and it seems like you should be in a lot deeper nasty than 10 days in jail and some community service. Regardless of the time they end up serving.

Not only can they, they do it during the most vital time. The Grand Jury hearing. They can realease as much or as little as they want. Even exculpatory evidence, because if it isn't in discovery, the prosecutor is the only one who knows it exists.

In my sons' case, a uniformed officer went to a house, took a recorded statement, assigned it an evidence number, transferred it to cd rom. It was in evidence, the public defender heard it, but was not allowed to copy it.

Later, prior to the trial, a new attorney had been hired. She requested the evidence by the description from the officers'report, and the number. It was reported as "lost". The "Judge", who was the DA that signed my sons' warrant, gave the new DA a month to find the evidence.

Right before trial, the evidence was proclaimed a mistake. No recording was ever made. The uniformed officer recanted his original report, the evidence number was proclaimed a mistake, and the uniformed officer was not called to testify. The evidence, though referenced for over two years, was exculpatory, and simply allowed to fade from existance.

The original report was re-written to match the court testimony of the alleged "victim", that had demonstrably changed 3 times from beginning at arrest to trial. The convicting story did not even resemble the original report, and cited evidence, that no longer existed.

The indictment was signed by someone that doesn't exist, and the names of the grand jurors on the list were not the names of the grand jurors that ever sat any session.

The indictment is to be signed by the grand jury foreperson or the replacement if there was one, or the bailiff. None of those people signed it. To this day, we do not know who signed the indictment.

After two no bills, prisoners should be released. The DA denied the no bills. They took the indictment to a new gj session. Also not allowed. It is to be heard by only one gj. When he could not get what he wanted, he did what he had to do, regardless of the law.

A no bill was returned twice, while he was jailed. Ther third, and fake indictment, was a "true bill", after the "Judge that should have recused himself" warned the new DA, "You have less than 10 days to get an indictment or we have to let him go."

The indictment is to be walked to open court, read in open court, and transcribed by the clerk. None of this was done. It was just "filed as a true bill".

ETA: I forgot one of the most important parts. To convict a DA, you must prove malicious intent in most, if not all, states. DA's, like judges, enjoy a very high immunity to prosecution. It is extremely rare. The headline may be a but exaggerative, but not as much as you may be inclined to think.

Judges are almost impossible to convict over a case decision or conspiracy to railroad. It is almost impossible to prove, and judges are usually convicted for actual crimes they commit, not over their cases.

reply to post by Libertygal

ETA: I forgot one of the most important parts. To convict a DA, you must prove malicious intent in most, if not all, states. DA's, like judges, enjoy a very high immunity to prosecution. It is extremely rare. The headline may be a but exaggerative, but not as much as you may be inclined to think.

You just nailed it. They have to have had "malice aforethought" in order for it to be considered a crime.

I think it sucks but I understand why it's done. If not for that "hurdle" DA's, judges and everyone on the prosecution's side would be chased both criminally and civilly by almost every criminal defendant that they charged - guilty or not. It would be a circus and the whole system would grind to a screeching halt.

With that said, there needs to be better safeguards built in and an easily accessible process or "body" to quickly review these instances and if warranted, quickly pursued so that the innocent do not suffer any more than they already have. Easy to do on paper...a little tougher in practice.

This one is a hairball no matter which way you look at it.

reply to post by Libertygal

You know what? I am LIVING this nightmare, right now, and have been, with my son. The entire county court system is in on it

recently i too had a bit of a run in with the law over a headlight out. my face was slammed into the asphalt and i spent 20 hours in jail. everyone reading this is probably thinking "ok, what did you ACTUALLY do" and the truth is the officer asked me to step out of my vehicle. i asked him to provide his "articulable reasonable suspicion" as required by law.

i discovered how easy it is for an officer to bring a lawsuit against someone (i was charged with "resisting without violence") and how damn hard and expensive it is to bring a lawsuit against anyone, let alone an officer.

at one point in jail i was even accused of terrorism! they literally said "you know too much law, you MUST be affiliated with a terrorist group". i am not kidding.

despite the officer having several prior incidents of excessive force under his belt, i was forced to plead no contest or face a YEAR in jail and $1000 fine. the whole ordeal cost me about $800, not to mention a hellish day in jail.

so i really feel for you. i understand how corrupt things are, and how the justice system does not protect anyone unless they have lots of money.

this is one of the reasons i don't do jury duty.
i always find a way out of it.

i couldn't live with myself if i was tricked or lied to, and voted to send a person to jail, or to their death on with held or false evidence.

just goes to show ya how many people are only interested in glorifying themselves, and not up holding the law.
for most DA's and judges their jobs are only a stepping stone to a more lucrative corrupt future as a politician.

reply to post by Domo1


why hasn't this been S.O.P. already.

Prosecutors should be under this always!

Look at all the innocent people released after DECADES behind bars.

The prosecutors should spend LIFE in prison on every case. Even if they are old, gray and retired.

Ship them off for good!

Bob Sholtz
at one point in jail i was even accused of terrorism! they literally said "you know too much law, you MUST be affiliated with a terrorist group". i am not kidding.

"No officer, I never was interested in becoming a police officer."

Better you didn't or you'd still be missing...

While it is encouraging to see the prosecutor was eventually held accountable, the slap on the wrist he got is insulting. He let a man waste 25 years of his life because he knew the evidence he had would hurt his case. That is not justice.

I feel like many prosecutors and judges do not see the person standing trial as a person, just another case, another notch on the belt and the more convictions one gets the better for his/her career. The really do not care if the person is innocent or guilty, it is just a game to them and that game is too get a conviction with the longest sentence and will overlook or hide evidence that will hurt their case.

The legal system is broken. Violent criminals often get lesser sentences than someone with simple drug charges or someone driving on a suspended license. The prison farm for profit system is a real. Most people who have never been arrested still think the police, prosecutors, and the judge look out for them and are shocked to find out what a circus it all is if they ever run into legal troubles.

It is cases like this that make me red in the face, and furious. The worst part is, this is NOT an isolated incident. This crap happens on a regular basis, all over the country. The legal system is broken, corrupted, and run by a group of heartless, soulless, creatures, who resemble humans only in appearance.

But we go on tolerating a system that has utterly failed us, as if it's all normal. We have become so desensitized, if we don't watch ourselves we will become just like those we abhor.