Seven years ago this week, a former Texas judge named Ken Anderson was booked into jail in Williamson County, where he was once the District Attorney, for his misconduct in Michael Morton’s wrongful conviction.
Anderson deliberately withheld evidence that pointed to Michael’s innocence in the murder of his wife. Michael was eventually exonerated by DNA evidence in 2011 after serving 25 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.
Anderson withheld favorable evidence that could have prevented Michael’s wrongful conviction. In response, the Texas legislature passed the 2013 “Michael Morton Act” to ensure that prosecutors share complete information with the defense.
Last year, the Texas Supreme Court identified a gap in the law — it doesn’t offer protections to prosecutors who refuse their supervisors’ orders to withhold evidence. We will be working to fix this loophole in the 2021 legislative session.
To this day, Ken Anderson remains the only prosecutor who has ever spent time in jail for misconduct that resulted in a wrongful conviction — even though at least 729 people have been exonerated from wrongful convictions involving prosecutorial misconduct since 1989, according to the National Registry of Exonerations.
Ken Anderson defends his performance as Williamson County district attorney, Friday, Feb. 8, 2013 in Georgetown, Texas. (Image: AP Photo/Statesman.com, Ricardo Brazziell, Pool)
According to the National Registry of Exonerations, only 4% of U.S. prosecutors involved in wrongful conviction cases that ultimately ended in an exoneration faced any kind of personal or professional discipline.
The Innocence Project exonerates the wrongly convicted through DNA testing and reforms the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice. www.innocenceproject.org
