A Texas prosecutor is being jailed for 10 days for his role in the wrongful conviction of a man 26 years ago.
Former Williamson County District Attorney Ken Anderson pleaded no contest to a criminal contempt charge Friday and was sentenced to 10 days in jail, $500 fine and 500 hours of community service and will be disbarred. Anderson will also be disbarred and has already resigned his position as a judge.
Anderson’s was charged with withholding key evidence and making false statements to the court in the 1987 murder trial of Michael Morton in the beating death of his wife.
With the assistance of the Innocence Project, Morton was eventually exonerated by DNA evidence after having served 25 years in prison. That DNA testing eventually led to the murder conviction of Mark Norwood.
Morton told Austin’s KXAN,
“It is a good day. The only thing I wanted is for Ken Anderson to be off the bench and for him to no longer practice law. Both of those things have happened and more.”
KXAN is also reporting that the Innocence Project has announced an ” independent review was approved by Williamson County District Attorney Jana Duty” which will “examine each case where someone is still serving jail time due to a conviction that occurred during Anderson’s 16-year reign as DA.”
Innocence Project attorney Barry Scheck, who rose to national fame as a member of the O.J. Simpson defense team noted: “(Morton) has changed criminal justice in Texas and he along with other exonerees will change it across the county.”
Gerald Goldstein, another Innocence Project attorney, added that “This is the first time in the country’s history that a prosecutor has been found guilty of criminal contempt, will go to jail, and be stripped of their law license.”
You can watch a news segment on the case courtesy of KXAN:
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