Disgraced former DA gets new gig

Disgraced former Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley has finally landed a new gig. He will be working in the Attorney General's Office in the Republic of Palau - a former US territory in Micronesia.

For those of y'all who may have been hiding under a rock the past couple of years, Mr. Bradley lost his post when he lost in the GOP primary back in 2012. As conservative as folks might be in Williamson County, they weren't able to overlook his role in the Michael Morton affair.

While it was former DA and former Judge (and former attorney) Ken Anderson who played fast and loose with the rules during the Morton investigation and trial, Mr. Bradley was the mouthpiece for those who wanted to preserve a bad conviction at any price. As a result of the illegal and shameful conduct by the Williamson County DA's Office, Michael Morton lost 25 years of his life and a killer walked free while he sat behind bars for a crime he didn't commit.

From Ms. Falkenburg's piece:

"I don't wake up every morning gnashing my teeth and shaking my fist at, you know, 'where's John Bradley?' I've literally and figuratively moved on," [Michael Morton] said. 

"At this stage of the game, I wish him well," Morton said. "And, you know, adios."

The fact that Bradley had to go all the way to Palau to get a gig just goes to show how reprehensible his actions were in defending the conviction.

It remains to be seen whether Palau will experience some of Bradley's brand of "justice."

Hear my tiny violin

The Michael Morton Act was passed in response to the wrongful conviction of Michael Morton. Mr. Morton, as has been noted here before, sat in prison for 25 years until his conviction was overturned. He was convicted in large part to prosecutorial misconduct.

Of course Mr. Morton wasn't the first person in Texas who sat in prison for decades as the result of a miscarriage of justice. He became the poster boy for wrongful convictions in large measure because he was white, he was from the suburbs and he was in a management position at the time of his arrest for murdering his wife.

The Michael Morton Act requires prosecutors to turn over all exculpatory evidence to the defense whenever it becomes available. It's the first time that Texas has put teeth into the Supreme Court's proclamation in Brady v. Maryland.

Civil litigation in Texas has long been governed by the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure that mandate complete discovery with the view that if all the facts are made known to all sides, there is a better chance the parties can come to an understanding without the need for trial.

In criminal cases, on the other hand, the defense was long saddled with the burden of not having access to the state's evidence. Forget about all that presumption of innocence crap and that garbage about proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Criminal trial work in most of the state was a glorious game of hide the sausage. Unlike the civil side of the ledger - in which folks were just arguing about money - the state was allowed a monopoly on the evidence.

We didn't allow trial by ambush in the civil courts but it was open season on defendants in the criminal courts.

Now that the state legislature has told prosecutors around the state evidence must be disclosed to the defense, district attorneys around the state have been squawking about how much it will cost the government to provide material to the defense. I, for one, don't give a flying fuck whether district attorneys around the state are wringing their hands about the cost of producing material. The government is the party that's trying to restrict the liberty of its citizenry.

And if we're interested in protecting the due process rights of those accused of criminal acts, then full disclosure on the part of the state is the only way to go. Full disclosure may very well be more expensive that not disclosing, but it can also lead to defense attorneys recommending that their clients enter into plea agreements based on the available evidence. Full disclosure will also reduce the number of appeals and writs based on prosecutorial misconduct. And I think we can all agree that's not a bad thing.

If the cost of producing material is higher than a district attorney thinks he or she can justify then maybe local prosecutors need to think twice about the cases they are filing. Maybe the cost of complying with the Michael Morton Act should be a factor to be considered in whether or not to accept the filing of charges in any given case.

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.

How to form a cult

So you want to create a cult, do you?

Creating an "us vs. them" attitude is one of the most effective tools in your arsenal. Take a group of people and convince them that they are standing up against the unruly mob banging on the door and they will turn their eyes inward.

Thanks to Big Jolly and Grits for Breakfast we have the presentation put up by the Grand Poobah of 1201 Franklin, District Attorney Mike Anderson, at a recent "ethics" training.

According to Mr. Anderson and Rob Kepple, of the Texas District and County Attorneys Association, those poor prosecutors are the only folks protecting us from the barbarians at the gate. They are maligned, scorned and mocked by those around them. The legislature is against them. The judges are against them. The defense attorneys are against them. The public is against them.

Add to the bunker mentality the cult-like figure of Johnny Holmes and you've got all you need to make your cult a going concern. 

One of the primary targets of Mr. Kepple's fury is the Innocence Project. In the eyes of Mr. Kepple those evil-minded ne'er-do-wells only want to make prosecutors look bad by asking to have DNA tested in case after case after case.

Mr. Kepple shows some serious man-love for former Williamson County D.A. John Bradley for his handling of the Michael Morton case. Should you not recall, Mr. Bradley blocked DNA testing on evidence found near the Morton home. In Mr. Kepple's words, Mr. Morton "got lucky."

Yes, he did get lucky. But he should never have had to go through the hell he went through. His life was torn asunder by Ken Anderson (now a judge) and Mr. Bradley. Mr. Kepple is still upset about the demise of Mr. Bradley. He's upset that such a law-and-order guy like Mr. Bradley was booted out of office by voters who were sick and tired of his tired schtick and the way he maneuvered for years to prevent DNA testing in Mr. Morton's case.

One thing that Mr. Kepple leaves unaddressed is how to prevent unethical and illegal conduct by prosecutors. In his view, Charles Sebesta, whose conduct led to an innocent man being put on death row, was just a bad apple (if even that). Prosecutors who resisted DNA testing were principled men and women standing up for what was right - the men challenging the evidence were the bad guys.

John Bradley did no wrong in the Morton case - even though we know an innocent man spent a quarter of a century behind bars for a crime that someone else committed.

And that fact doesn't even seem to play into Mr. Kebble's view of the world. He just doesn't seem to understand that if an innocent man was convicted for a crime - the real perpetrator is still out there. Instead of getting your panties in a wad because someone's getting exonerated, why not work to figure out who should have been prosecuted in the first place?

And then there's Brady. The state can always get away without disclosure by arguing that the evidence wasn't material. So does anyone at this training session urge a more liberal interpretation of Brady? Of course not. The goal isn't to disclose. The goal is to hide it away where it can never be found.

All hail the Great Grand Exalted Poobah.

Here's the full video courtesy of Big Jolly...

Williamson County DA dragged kicking and screaming toward justice

John Bradley did his best to keep Michael Morton locked up behind bars. Even while presiding over the (emasculated) Texas Forensic Science Commission, the Williamson County District Attorney fought efforts by Mr. Morton's attorneys to conduct DNA testing on evidence introduced during in 1987 trial. Mr. Morton was charged with and convicted for the murder of his wife.

But it was all to no avail.

Mr. Morton is a free man once again, having been freed from the state penitentiary after Travis County prosecutors linked evidence found at the scene of the Morton murder with evidence found at another murder. That's right. Not Williamson County prosecutors. Prosecutors from down I-35.

There are also allegations that Williamson County prosecutors withheld evidence that might have exonerated Mr. Morton at trial. Apparently no one in the office thought they needed to turn over evidence that one of Ms. Morton's credit cards was used in San Antonio two days after her death or that someone cashed a check by forging her signature nine days after she was murdered.

Details. Details. Details. I mean, you can't possibly expect prosecutors to tie up every last loose end can you? We need to move these cases along. We need closure, dammit!

Bexar County Judge Sid Harle offered Mr. Morton his apologies after setting him free.

"You do have my sympathies," Harle said. "We don’t have a perfect system of justice, but we do have the best system in the world."

Unless you're behind bars for over two decades for a crime you didn't commit, I suppose.

Of course Mr. Bradley sought to deflect criticism for his role in keeping an innocent man behind bars. We all know that Mr. Bradley is very interested in seeing that justice is done. Just take a look at his record while turning the forensic science commission into a coffee klatch.

According to a story in the Texas Tribune, Mr. Bradley was wrapping himself in the flag and acting the part of the hero after Mr. Morton's release.

Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley said that the new developments - which he said were a lightning bolt type of discovery - warranted a reversal of Morton's murder conviction. 

"It is my just, as district attorney, to make sure that justice is done," Bradley said after the court action today.

Well, I guess it's too late to worry about whether justice was served when Cameron Willingham was murdered by the state of Texas for a crime he didn't commit. After all, he was already dead, what good is justice when you're six feet under?

Mr. Bradley has some nerve to characterize the evidence the way he did after he fought tooth-and-nail for six years to prevent DNA testing. Where was his desire to see justice done then?

Tragedies such as Mr. Morton's are what happen when we worship at the altar of finality rather than justice.

Morton Findings

See also:

"Free! But damn! 25 years," Gamso for the Defense (Oct. 4, 2011)

"Belated justice in Williamson County for innocent man delayed for years by DA opposition to DNA testing," Grits for Breakfast (Oct. 3, 2011)

"Morton to be freed from prison today," Austin American-Statesman (Oct. 3, 2011)

"John Bradley called too biased to fairly evaluate DNA innocence claim," Grits for Breakfast (Aug. 17, 2011)