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On Friday, a former Texas district attorney agreed to serve 10 days in jail for withholding evidence that could’ve stopped an innocent man from going to prison for nearly 25 years… apparently, the first time that a court put a prosecutor behind bars for concealing evidence helpful to the defence. Former Williamson County District Attorney Ken Anderson agreed to a plea deal that’d also require him to pay a 500 USD (16,300 Roubles. 520 CAD. 540 AUD. 370 Euros. 310 UK Pounds) fine and complete 500 hours of community service after Texas State District Judge Kelly Moore found him in contempt of court for telling a trial judge in 1987 that he didn’t have exculpatory evidence to hand over to lawyers for Michael Morton, whose conviction in his wife’s death was overturned in 2011. The court dropped charges of tampering with evidence, which could’ve meant 10 years in prison, as part of the deal, under which Anderson would lose his license to practise law. The law requires prosecutors to share any evidence that they have that could help the defence. However, Anderson withheld two critical facts in his prosecution of Morton:
Witnesses reported seeing a man park a green van nearby and walk into the woods near the Mortons’ house
Morton’s 3-year-old son said specifically that Morton wasn’t at the scene
Two years ago, when new DNA evidence proved his innocence, Texas released Morton from prison. In March, a court convicted a drifter named Mark Alan Norwood of beating Christine Morton to death her in bed based on the same evidence. On Friday, Michael Morton was in court for the hearing in Georgetown TX. He said, addressing Anderson, “My number one motivating factor here is that what happened to me won’t happen to you. And by what happened today, we’ve succeeded”. Gerald Goldstein, an attorney for the Innocence Project, a nonprofit legal clinic affiliated with Yeshiva University Benjamin N Cardozo School of Law, told NBC station KXAN of Austin TX that Anderson’s sentence, however brief, was precedent-shattering, saying, “This is the first time in the country’s history that a prosecutor has been found guilty of criminal contempt, will go to jail, and be stripped of their law license”.
8 November 2013
M. Alex Johnson
Peter Williams
NBC News
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/11/08/21373060-ex-texas-prosecutor-first-in-history-to-be-jailed-for-withholding-evidence?lite&lite=obinsite
Editor’s Note:
Anderson served only FIVE DAYS of his sentence, and they let him out! Look at what he got… a 500 buck fine… peanuts… five days in gaol… a joke… and disbarment… which, as he’s retired, is a meaningless formality. I shall speak plainly… the State of Texas told the rest of the country that prosecutorial misconduct is allowed in the state, they’ll cover for it, and those who carry it out will pay no real penalty. Reflect on the fact that Texas is a so-called “Law and Order” police state with the harshest prison system in the country and one of the highest rates of capital punishment in the USA (mostly due to Anglo Texans fear of “minorities”, especially Tejanos, as Texas is actually “Occupied Mexico“). This only underlines that Texas doesn’t intend to rein in out-of-control Anglo politicians. Anderson deserved six months in gaol and a 10,000 USD (326,000 Roubles. 10,450 CAD. 10,700 AUD. 7,400 Euros. 6,200 UK Pounds) fine… it still wouldn’t be proportionate to his crime, but it WOULD send the message that DAs had best mind the law… which they swear to uphold… fancy that…
BMD
Filed under: legal, politics, USA Tagged: DIstrict Attorney, DNA profiling, Innocence Project, Ken Anderson, legal affairs, Michael Morton, political commentary, politics, Texas, United States, USA