DNA test shows innocent man jailed in 1986 murder, court filing says

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/courts/entries/2011/08/17/dna_test_shows_innocent_man_ja.html

Ahh that Texas injustice. Sure DNA was not around back then, but it should not have been needed....

What’s more, the motion alleges, Bradley worked to keep a key piece of evidence hidden from Morton’s lawyers — a transcript of a police interview that shows the Mortons’ 3-year-old son witnessed his mother’s murder and said the attacker was not his father.

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On top of this, not mentioned here, but information also not released to the defence back then.... his wife's credit card was used 2 days after the murder, and checks were cashed 9 days after.. all which were situated in his wife's purse which was missing after the murder... and yes, he was in jail at the time so could not have done it.

Just another example of how corrupt the US justice system can be, when prosecutors constantly dont give the defence all the material they have and abuse their power to put innocent people in jail because they either are too lazy to do their jobs or are so corrupt that they dont give a damn as long as it gets them re-elected.

Because of this, an innocent man has been rotting in jail for 25 years... hope he sues the **** out of the state of Texas and gets millions in damages.

PeteEU said:

Because of this, an innocent man has been rotting in jail for 25 years... hope he sues the **** out of the state of Texas and gets millions in damages.

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Wish he could. Is that even possible?

MKULTRABOY said:

Wish he could. Is that even possible?

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Why are you asking -him-? He has no idea.

MKULTRABOY said:

Wish he could. Is that even possible?

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I do believe you can sue for wrongful imprisonment, but I don't know if the award outweighs the costs.

soccerboy22 said:

I do believe you can sue for wrongful imprisonment, but I don't know if the award outweighs the costs.

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There's not enough money in the world to replace stolen time from a person's life.



Texas' wrongful imprisonment was so rampant they had to pass a bill - The 'Tim Cole Act' - to compensate the innocent.

Of course there are some pitfalls that one must maneuver. For instance, death row inmate Anthony Graves, who was incriminated by false testimony, had an appellate court overturn his conviction, BUT the judge's order didn't contain the magic words "actual innocence" (it only declared him innocent) which the statute requires. After 18 years in prison, 12 on death row, and a year after being released, Mr. Graves is still awaiting the $1.4 million compensation due him.

even a big settlement wouldn't be worth losing that much of your life.

but i hope he gets a very big settlement.

PeteEU said:

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/courts/entries/2011/08/17/dna_test_shows_innocent_man_ja.html

Ahh that Texas injustice. Sure DNA was not around back then, but it should not have been needed....







On top of this, not mentioned here, but information also not released to the defence back then.... his wife's credit card was used 2 days after the murder, and checks were cashed 9 days after.. all which were situated in his wife's purse which was missing after the murder... and yes, he was in jail at the time so could not have done it.

Just another example of how corrupt the US justice system can be, when prosecutors constantly dont give the defence all the material they have and abuse their power to put innocent people in jail because they either are too lazy to do their jobs or are so corrupt that they dont give a damn as long as it gets them re-elected.

Because of this, an innocent man has been rotting in jail for 25 years... hope he sues the **** out of the state of Texas and gets millions in damages.

Click to expand...

Lets put this in its perspective or let me try Police Methods and Investigations have evolved over not decades but centuries....today jack the ripper would be caught and tried...instead hes still a mystery and the object of books and movies...a myth.
The polygraph was created in 1921 and not widely accepted and used till some years later....that was the only tool that Police had to determine truth and it was unreliable as all hell and remains unreliable right up to today.....so how did police conduct investigations...crime scene investigations before DNA was cursory and more a collection effort...the investigator scoured the scene before it was touched and by sight tried to determine what happened..<lack of good science> in other types of crimes it was the gumshoe effect...
Gumshoe meaning you crisscrossed the neighborhood knocking on doors asking if they heard of saw anything...it was imperfect to say the least...but it was ALL they had coupled with a coroners findings...so many crimes went unsolved
Before DNA were mistakes made...ohman you betcha...were they intentional maybe some but the LIONSHARE were based on witness accts...but again there was no way to determine truth other than the eye of the investigator interviewing the witness.....DNA opened a whole new aspect and world of criminal investigations along with huge technological advances in police science..
Its not surprising at all that now they are finding mistakes...eventually the mistakes will dwindle down to almost nothing with the new technology and as years pass.....There was no wheel till someone created one...

lpast said:

Lets put this in its perspective or let me try Police Methods and Investigations have evolved over not decades but centuries....today jack the ripper would be caught and tried...instead hes still a mystery and the object of books and movies...a myth.
The polygraph was created in 1921 and not widely accepted and used till some years later....that was the only tool that Police had to determine truth and it was unreliable as all hell and remains unreliable right up to today.....so how did police conduct investigations...crime scene investigations before DNA was cursory and more a collection effort...the investigator scoured the scene before it was touched and by sight tried to determine what happened..<lack of good science> in other types of crimes it was the gumshoe effect...
Gumshoe meaning you crisscrossed the neighborhood knocking on doors asking if they heard of saw anything...it was imperfect to say the least...but it was ALL they had coupled with a coroners findings...so many crimes went unsolved
Before DNA were mistakes made...ohman you betcha...were they intentional maybe some but the LIONSHARE were based on witness accts...but again there was no way to determine truth other than the eye of the investigator interviewing the witness.....DNA opened a whole new aspect and world of criminal investigations along with huge technological advances in police science..
Its not surprising at all that now they are finding mistakes...eventually the mistakes will dwindle down to almost nothing with the new technology and as years pass.....There was no wheel till someone created one...

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Point is, today it is the DNA evidence that has outed other evidence that the prosecution hid from the defence back in the day. Yes DNA evidence today totally exonerates him, but the evidence that the prosecution hid from the defence back in the day would have created tons of reasonable doubt that he most likely never would have been convicted.

You try to explain to a jury how credit cards of the wife are being used 2 days after the murder and when the accused is in jail? You try to explain to a jury how checks were being cashed 9 days after the murder when the accused was in jail? Had that evidence been made available then he would not have been convicted.

This is not just a wrongfully convicted story, but another prosecutorial misconduct that has robed someone of decades of his or her life... thank god he was not executed I say..

MKULTRABOY said:

Wish he could. Is that even possible?

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I do believe that people have brought charges against government/prosecution if it could be shown that there was misconduct and hiding of evidence on their part.

Considering this was Texas, it's pretty nice that they didn't kill him first. But should it be proven that there was misconduct and hiding of evidence; I think above monetary compensation there should be legal ramifications for the prosecution/DA who lied and hid the evidence.

PeteEU said:

Point is, today it is the DNA evidence that has outed other evidence that the prosecution hid from the defence back in the day. Yes DNA evidence today totally exonerates him, but the evidence that the prosecution hid from the defence back in the day would have created tons of reasonable doubt that he most likely never would have been convicted.

You try to explain to a jury how credit cards of the wife are being used 2 days after the murder and when the accused is in jail? You try to explain to a jury how checks were being cashed 9 days after the murder when the accused was in jail? Had that evidence been made available then he would not have been convicted.

This is not just a wrongfully convicted story, but another prosecutorial misconduct that has robed someone of decades of his or her life... thank god he was not executed I say..

Click to expand...

I was not referring to this particular case in my post it was intended in general......I wasnt trying to make excuses for it...

PeteEU said:

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/courts/entries/2011/08/17/dna_test_shows_innocent_man_ja.html

Ahh that Texas injustice. Sure DNA was not around back then, but it should not have been needed....



On top of this, not mentioned here, but information also not released to the defence back then.... his wife's credit card was used 2 days after the murder, and checks were cashed 9 days after.. all which were situated in his wife's purse which was missing after the murder... and yes, he was in jail at the time so could not have done it.

Just another example of how corrupt the US justice system can be, when prosecutors constantly dont give the defence all the material they have and abuse their power to put innocent people in jail because they either are too lazy to do their jobs or are so corrupt that they dont give a damn as long as it gets them re-elected.

Because of this, an innocent man has been rotting in jail for 25 years... hope he sues the **** out of the state of Texas and gets millions in damages.

Click to expand...

And the Spanish justice system is perfect. :roll:

/thread

It's not a Texas exclusive, it happens all the time in plenty of other cases.

When it is clear that the Prosecutor was guilty of withholding key evidence from the defence he needs to be doing time.