A (tiny) step in the right direction

Former state district judge Ken Anderson, the man who prosecuted Michael Morton for a murder he didn't commit, entered into a plea bargain on Friday that will see him serve 10 days in the Williamson County Jail, perform 500 hours of community service and be disbarred. In exchange for his guilty plea on a criminal contempt charge, Mr. Anderson will avoid trial on charges of tampering with evidence that could have seen him sentenced to prison time.

The contempt charge dates back to a 1987 exchange at the bench in which Mr. Anderson told the court and Mr. Morton's attorneys that he had no Brady material. What he didn't reveal was a statement by Mr. Morton's three-year-old son that put someone else in the house at the time of the murder.

Mr. Morton was present in the courtroom when Mr. Anderson entered into the plea agreement.

While there is some satisfaction that Mr. Anderson has paid something for the years he stole from Mr. Morton, there is no way the debt can ever be repaid. Mr. Morton lost seeing his son grow up. He lost all those moments we have with our children. He endured unspeakable horror in the state prison system.

But it wasn't just Ken Anderson who stole that time from Mr. Morton. It was our criminal (in)justice system. It was a jurisprudence that begins with the proposition that if the facts are bad enough a way will be found to uphold the conviction. Our Fourth Amendment resembles a piece of Swiss cheese because the US Supreme Court has spent decades carving out exceptions in order to uphold convictions of folks who did bad things regardless of how the police conducted their investigation.

Such a jurisprudence results in protections and guarantees that are so riddled with holes as to be entirely unrecognizable. We are left with an illogical framework of rights that makes no sense.

If our courts wanted to make it right judges would start off analyzing police behavior in isolation. If the police violated the Fourth Amendment it shouldn't matter what the defendant said or did (or how much of whatever he had on him). The Fourth Amendment doesn't distinguish between alleged offenses. Its language is absolute. Either a defendant's rights were violated or they weren't. There are no two ways about it.

This Alice in Wonderland-esque method of jurisprudence is what landed Mr. Morton in prison for 25 years. Ken Anderson was merely the delivery device for a system broken beyond repair. There are those who would say the end result of the case is a vindication of our criminal (in)justice system. I'm not one of them. Any system that allows an innocent man to lose 25 years of his life is broken. It is broken in the district and county courtrooms. It is broken in the Court of Appeals. It is broken in the Court of Criminal Appeals. And it is broken in Washington at the US Supreme Court.

We lost our way when it became more important to uphold convictions of people who did bad things than it was to uphold the Constitution. Michael Morton paid an awful price. So has every other man or woman who sat in a prison cell for even one day for a crime they didn't commit.

What goes around sometimes comes around

"On behalf of the citizens of Texas, I extend my appreciation and gratitude for your service to the State of Texas and wish you all the best in your future endeavors." -- Gov. Rick Perry's response to Ken Anderson's resignation letter

Michael Morton spent 25 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. He was convicted due, in part, to the actions of then-Williamson County prosecutor Ken Anderson. He withheld evidence and lied to the court when questioned about it.

In 1995 the State Bar of Texas named him prosecutor of the year. Gov. Rick Perry appointed him to the bench in 2002.

Mr. Anderson is disciplinary action from the State Bar for his actions in the Morton matter. He is also facing criminal charges for tampering with evidence and government records.

On Tuesday Ken Anderson resigned.

There is nothing that can happen to Mr. Anderson that will approximate the injustice suffered by Michael Morton. Now I have no belief in this notion that the universe has some sort of moral arc. I think things are as they are. I don't think that Mr. Anderson is suffering from an attack of some very bad karma for what he did.

Mr. Anderson acted, at best, unethically and, at worse, criminally. I am certain that he castigated defendants in front of his bench for making excuses and refusing to accept responsibility for their actions. Now, however, the shoe is on the other foot.

And what does the Governor's response say about the Fair Haired One's grasp of the law? Ken Anderson betrayed the very oath he took when he was sworn in as an attorney. Not only did he care more about obtaining a conviction than seeing justice done - he continued to prevent justice from being done for decades. So don't speak on my behalf, Mr. Perry. Don't presume that I will stand in awe of Mr. Anderson's accomplishments as a prosecutor and as a judge. The man is a black stain upon our criminal (in)justice system.

If not for the tireless efforts of attorneys like John Raley and Nina Morrison, Mr. Morton would still be in prison and the dirty, rotten secrets of the Williamson County Courthouse would never have been revealed. More importantly, if not for those very efforts, Ken Anderson would continue to sit on the bench and disgrace our criminal (in)justice system further.

Don't let the door hit you on the way out, Ken.

Dropping the other shoe

Michael Morton spent 25 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. Once evidence surfaced that Mr. Morton might just have been innocent of the murder of his wife, the Williamson County District Attorney, John Bradley, fought tooth and nail to prevent the evidence from being tested.

The DA at the time of Mr. Morton's trial, Ken Anderson, was now a state district court judge in Williamson County and the office was circling the wagons to cover up the sins of one of their own.

Eventually the evidence was tested - and it exonerated Mr. Morton.

Twenty-five years is a long time to sit in prison - especially if you were wrongly convicted. Even worse if that conviction were the result of prosecutorial misconduct. There is nothing that can make up for that time. Mr. Morton will never have the opportunity to see his son grow up. An apology from the court and a check from the state can't cover the debt Mr. Morton is owed.

During the investigation of the murder of Christine Morton, investigators interviewed Mr. Morton's three-year-old son who told police that his father wasn't at home when his mother was killed. There were also police reports about a suspicious van in the area and a man who wandered up behind the Morton's house on more than one occasion.

Prosecutors failed to disclose that information to the defense before or during trial. And, of course, the jury never heard a word about any of it. Making it worse, Judge. Anderson then lied to the judge presiding over Mr. Morton's trial when asked about the evidence.

But now the other shoe has dropped. On Friday, State District Judge Louis Sturns, presiding over a court of inquiry, found that Judge Anderson broke two laws in his handling of the matter and that he committed criminal contempt when he lied to the court. Then Judge Sturns ordered Judge Anderson arrested.

In a blunt and scathing ruling, District Judge Louis Sturns said Anderson acted to defraud the trial court and Morton’s defense lawyers, resulting in an innocent man serving almost 25 years in prison. 

“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 said.

Let that sink in for a moment.

First the judge tells a fellow judge that he broke the law while handling the Morton case, then he issues an arrest order for a sitting judge. That just doesn't happen in Texas.

Judge Anderson was taken into custody, posted bond and was released that evening. But the sting of Judge Sturns' words will never be erased. A sitting state district judge broke the law and lied to a judge all in the name of trying to win a case against a man he knew - or should have known - was innocent of the charge.

Judge Anderson challenged the ruling and informed Judge Sturns that he plans to appeal on the grounds that the court of inquiry exceeded the scope of its authority and that the statute of limitations had already run. He also claimed that the evidence didn't support Judge Sturns' findings.

It is more than a little interesting to note that Judge Anderson has never denied hiding the evidence. Neither he nor John Bradley found anything wrong with not disclosing exculpatory evidence to Mr. Morton's attorneys

While the Michael Morton Act expanding the items the state must turn over to the defense prior to trial is a step in the right direction, the actions of Judge Sturns are the equivalent of turning the entire truck around. A ruling that a piece of evidence is inadmissible is one thing - a ruling that a prosecutor's actions constituted a criminal act is something entirely different.

If we want to make certain that no one else has to go through what Michael Morton went through, we have to start holding prosecutors accountable for their actions. This isn't a game we play, what goes in those courtrooms affect people's lives in profound ways. Judge Anderson's actions not only robbed Mr. Morton of 25 years, they also robbed his loved ones of those 25 years.

I just wonder if Judge Anderson has enough honor to step down from the bench he has disgraced.