The Michael Morton case is the Texas wrongful conviction in which a man served nearly 25 years for his wife’s 1986 murder because the lead prosecutor hid evidence pointing to another suspect; DNA testing freed Morton in 2011, identified the real killer, and pushed Texas to pass a landmark open-file discovery law in 2013.
The 1986 Murder and the 1987 Trial
Christine Morton was found beaten to death in her bed in Williamson County, Texas, in August 1986. Investigators focused on her husband, Michael, almost immediately. When the case went to trial in 1987, the prosecution had no murder weapon, no confession, and no physical evidence linking Morton to the killing. What prosecutors offered instead was a theory: that Morton had attacked his wife in anger the night before after she refused sex, evidenced by a note he had left her and by what they described as his emotionally detached demeanor.
The jury convicted him and sent him to prison for life. It never heard the evidence that would have pointed somewhere else entirely.
The Evidence the Prosecutor Hid
Lead prosecutor Ken Anderson held back material that directly undercut the state’s case. The Mortons’ three-year-old son had told his grandmother that “a monster” killed his mother and that his father was not home during the attack. A neighbor had reported seeing a man in a green van parked near the Morton home around the time of the murder. Neither piece of information reached the defense or the jury.
Under the Supreme Court’s 1963 decision in Brady v. Maryland, prosecutors are constitutionally required to disclose evidence favorable to the defense when it is material to guilt or punishment.1Justia Law. Brady v Maryland 373 US 83 (1963) Anderson’s suppression violated that duty. Either item alone could have changed the trial. Together, they described a different crime than the one the jury was told about.
How DNA Freed Morton
Morton maintained his innocence from the day of his arrest, and after years of denied appeals the Innocence Project took on his case. His new legal team pushed for modern DNA testing of a bloody bandana that had been recovered near the Morton home shortly after the murder. The prosecution resisted for years. In 2011 the courts finally ordered the testing.
The results excluded Morton entirely. The blood on the bandana belonged to Christine Morton and an unknown man. Morton walked out of prison on October 4, 2011, after 24 years, 7 months, and 11 days behind bars. A DNA database search then matched the unknown profile to Mark Alan Norwood, and Morton was officially exonerated on December 19, 2011.2Northwestern Pritzker Law. Michael Morton
The Second Victim
Identifying Norwood answered another question. On January 13, 1988, roughly a year and a half after Christine Morton was killed, Debra Baker was beaten to death in her bed in Austin. The attack was strikingly similar. DNA from that crime scene also matched Norwood.
Norwood was convicted of Christine Morton’s murder in March 2013 and sentenced to life in prison. He was later convicted of capital murder in the Baker case and received a second life sentence, to run consecutively. Had the evidence pointing away from Morton been disclosed in 1987, investigators could have pursued Norwood before Debra Baker was killed.
What Happened to Ken Anderson
By the time Morton was exonerated, Anderson had become a state district judge. A court of inquiry was convened to examine whether he had committed crimes during the original prosecution, and it resulted in a criminal contempt charge for failing to disclose evidence at the 1987 trial.
In November 2013, Anderson accepted a deal resolving both the contempt charge and a related civil suit. He was sentenced to ten days in jail, given one day of credit for time served, fined $500, and ordered to complete 500 hours of community service over five years. Separate evidence-tampering charges were dropped. The Supreme Court of Texas treated his resignation as a disbarment, permanently barring him from practicing law in the state.3Texas Courts. Order of the Supreme Court of Texas – In the Matter of Ken Anderson
Nine days served for concealing evidence that cost a man nearly 25 years and likely enabled a second murder. The gap between that punishment and the harm became a rallying point for prosecutorial accountability reform.
The Michael Morton Act
The Texas Legislature responded in 2013 by passing Senate Bill 1611, the Michael Morton Act, which took effect on January 1, 2014. It cleared both chambers without a dissenting vote.4Texas Legislature Online. 83(R) SB 1611 – Enrolled Version – Bill Text
Before the Act, Texas defense attorneys had to file a motion showing “good cause” before a court would order the prosecution to share evidence, leaving prosecutors with broad discretion over what to turn over. The amended Article 39.14 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure flipped that default. Prosecutors must now produce evidence as soon as practicable after a defense request, with no good-cause showing or court order required.5State of Texas. Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 39.14 – Discovery
The scope is broad: offense reports, witness statements (including those from law enforcement officers), documents, photographs, and other tangible evidence material to the case that the state possesses or controls. Beyond that, prosecutors must hand over any exculpatory, impeachment, or mitigating information that tends to negate the defendant’s guilt or reduce punishment, whether or not the defense specifically asks for it.4Texas Legislature Online. 83(R) SB 1611 – Enrolled Version – Bill Text
The Act also builds in a paper trail. Prosecutors must document every item provided to the defense, and both sides must acknowledge on the record or in writing what was disclosed before a plea or trial. That makes it much harder to claim after the fact that evidence was shared when it was not.5State of Texas. Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 39.14 – Discovery The law preserves a work-product exception for the prosecution’s internal legal strategy and notes, but the underlying facts and evidence themselves are not protected.6Texas Legislature Online. SB 1611 – Committee Report (Unamended) Version – Bill Analysis
Compensation Morton Received
Under the Tim Cole Act, Texas exonerees receive $80,000 for each year of wrongful imprisonment, with partial years counted.7Texas Legislature Online. 81(R) HB 1736 – Enrolled Version – Bill Text For Morton, that formula produced a payment of nearly $2 million from the state comptroller. The statute also covers child support obligations that accrued during the wrongful imprisonment.
The money does not replace what he lost. His son grew up without him. His marriage was gone. He missed his parents’ final years. The compensation exists because the state acknowledges a debt when its system fails this completely.
Impact Beyond Texas
Congress passed the Due Process Protections Act in 2020, amending Rule 5 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. Federal judges must now issue an order at the first appearance where both prosecutor and defense counsel are present, reminding prosecutors of their Brady obligations and spelling out the consequences for violations.8GovInfo. Due Process Protections Act – Public Law 116-182 The federal law reinforces existing Brady duties rather than creating a full open-file system, and prosecutors keep discretion over what qualifies as material.
Several states have adopted or considered open-file discovery rules along the Texas lines, though the scope and enforcement vary. The lesson the Morton case drove home is simple: when prosecutors alone decide what the defense sees, the system depends entirely on individual honesty. The Michael Morton Act replaced that trust with structure, and other jurisdictions continue to weigh whether to do the same.