In 1987, Michael Morton, now 57, was wrongfully convicted for the brutal beating death of his wife, Christine Morton. Morton was convicted of his wife’s murder, and sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison - even though there were no eyewitnesses or direct evidence that connected him to this horrendous crime. At his trial, prosecutors ignored exculpatory evidence pointing to Morton’s innocence, instead falsely claiming that he, in a sudden rage, had beaten his wife, because she had resisted sexual relations with him after they returned from celebrating his birthday the previous evening.
In 2011, Michael Morton’s innocence was finally brought to light as a result of a reinvestigation into the case. Specifically, new DNA results, combined with evidence that was improperly withheld by Williamson County prosecutors for more than two decades, indicate that Morton has spent 24 years in jail for a murder he did not commit. To this end, the jury responsible for convicting Michael Morton had never known that state prosecutors possessed both physical and eyewitness evidence leading to another suspect.