Williamson County District Attorney Ken Anderson is being investigated for allegedly hiding evidence that might have exonerated the defendant.

TX- Combining tenacity with legal creativity, lawyers for Michael Morton are doing something that has never been attempted in the nation's 280 previous DNA exoneration cases: They're investigating the prosecutor who sent Morton away for a murder he did not commit.

Armed with court-given power not typically available to defense lawyers, Morton's legal team has pried open investigative files and forced former Williamson County District Attorney Ken Anderson to answer questions under oath and against his will.

The team has also combed court records and interviewed current and former county officials to flesh out allegations that Anderson hid evidence that could have spared Morton from serving almost 25 years in prison for the murder of his wife, Christine.

And now we know where all this effort is headed.

On Dec. 19, Morton's lawyers will provide a written report of their findings to District Judge Sid Harle, who took over Morton's case in August.

They'll discuss the report in open court with Morton likely to be in attendance.

And they'll conclude by asking Harle to take action against Anderson, though what type of action is something Morton's lawyers are keeping to themselves for the moment.

A hint, however, can be found in the transcript of an Oct. 3 hearing that took place in Harle's chambers. Morton lawyer Barry Scheck told Harle that they would return to his court if they found indications of misconduct by Morton's prosecutors.

"I do think that that might trigger other investigations," Scheck told the judge.

Bennett Gershman, a law professor at Pace University in White Plains, N.Y., and the author of several books on prosecutorial ethics, said several states have created innocence commissions to examine wrongful convictions in hopes of avoiding future mistakes.

But Gershman said he has heard of no similar post-exoneration investigations led by defense lawyers that seek to assign blame for a wrongful conviction.
http://www.statesman.com/news/williamson/morton-lawyers-put-prosecution-on-defense-2017000.html