Williamson County DA dragged kicking and screaming toward justice

John Bradley did his best to keep Michael Morton locked up behind bars. Even while presiding over the (emasculated) Texas Forensic Science Commission, the Williamson County District Attorney fought efforts by Mr. Morton's attorneys to conduct DNA testing on evidence introduced during in 1987 trial. Mr. Morton was charged with and convicted for the murder of his wife.

But it was all to no avail.

Mr. Morton is a free man once again, having been freed from the state penitentiary after Travis County prosecutors linked evidence found at the scene of the Morton murder with evidence found at another murder. That's right. Not Williamson County prosecutors. Prosecutors from down I-35.

There are also allegations that Williamson County prosecutors withheld evidence that might have exonerated Mr. Morton at trial. Apparently no one in the office thought they needed to turn over evidence that one of Ms. Morton's credit cards was used in San Antonio two days after her death or that someone cashed a check by forging her signature nine days after she was murdered.

Details. Details. Details. I mean, you can't possibly expect prosecutors to tie up every last loose end can you? We need to move these cases along. We need closure, dammit!

Bexar County Judge Sid Harle offered Mr. Morton his apologies after setting him free.

"You do have my sympathies," Harle said. "We don’t have a perfect system of justice, but we do have the best system in the world."

Unless you're behind bars for over two decades for a crime you didn't commit, I suppose.

Of course Mr. Bradley sought to deflect criticism for his role in keeping an innocent man behind bars. We all know that Mr. Bradley is very interested in seeing that justice is done. Just take a look at his record while turning the forensic science commission into a coffee klatch.

According to a story in the Texas Tribune, Mr. Bradley was wrapping himself in the flag and acting the part of the hero after Mr. Morton's release.

Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley said that the new developments - which he said were a lightning bolt type of discovery - warranted a reversal of Morton's murder conviction. 

"It is my just, as district attorney, to make sure that justice is done," Bradley said after the court action today.

Well, I guess it's too late to worry about whether justice was served when Cameron Willingham was murdered by the state of Texas for a crime he didn't commit. After all, he was already dead, what good is justice when you're six feet under?

Mr. Bradley has some nerve to characterize the evidence the way he did after he fought tooth-and-nail for six years to prevent DNA testing. Where was his desire to see justice done then?

Tragedies such as Mr. Morton's are what happen when we worship at the altar of finality rather than justice.

Morton Findings

See also:

"Free! But damn! 25 years," Gamso for the Defense (Oct. 4, 2011)

"Belated justice in Williamson County for innocent man delayed for years by DA opposition to DNA testing," Grits for Breakfast (Oct. 3, 2011)

"Morton to be freed from prison today," Austin American-Statesman (Oct. 3, 2011)

"John Bradley called too biased to fairly evaluate DNA innocence claim," Grits for Breakfast (Aug. 17, 2011)

Cheering on the state death machine

That's right. You heard the audience cheer when Brian Williams stated how many inmates have been murdered by the State of Texas. You heard a group of right wing Republicans preaching the virtues of limited government cheer because the state carried out 234 murders under Rick Perry's "watch."

Limited government means the citizenry has the right to be left alone. What could possibly violate the principle more than arming the state with the tools to kill its own citizens?

And, even more to the point, Rick Perry knows he sat and allowed an innocent man to be killed by the apparatus of the state when he refused to halt the murder of Cameron Willingham. Rick Perry knows he allowed an innocent man to be killed in the name of Texas and his appointment of Williamson County D.A. John Bradley to emasculate the state forensic science committee is evidence of his guilty mind.

Rick Perry calls himself a Christian yet he gladly boasts about the number of people killed by the state while he's been in Austin. And the sickest part is that folks in the audience cheered him for doing it.

Rick Perry isn't in favor of limited government. Rick Perry wishes to extend the power of the state to meddle in our lives. Rick Perry wants to give the state more authority to intrude upon our right to be left alone.

See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil

What do you do when you're tired of the Texas Forensic Science Commission keeps sticking its nose into whether or not an innocent man, Cameron Willingham, was murdered by the State of Texas? You have the Attorney General issue an opinion that investigating evidence that the fire was not deliberately set is outside the scope of the Commission's duties.

The Commission was created under the authority of Art. 38.01 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure. Section 4 lays out the duties of the Commission:

Sec. 4. (a) The commission shall: (1) develop and implement a reporting system through which accredited laboratories, facilities, or entities report professional negligence or misconduct; (2) require all laboratories, facilities, or entities that conduct forensic analyses to report professional negligence or misconduct to the commission; and (3) investigate, in a timely manner, any allegation of professional negligence or misconduct that would substantially affect the integrity of the results of a forensic analysis conducted by an accredited laboratory, facility, or entity. (b) An investigation under Subsection (a)(3): (1) must include the preparation of a written report that identifies and also describes the methods and procedures used to identify: (A) the alleged negligence or misconduct; (B) whether negligence or misconduct occurred; and (C) any corrective action required of the laboratory, facility, or entity; and (2) may include one or more: (A) retrospective reexaminations of other forensic analyses conducted by the laboratory, facility, or entity that may involve the same kind of negligence or misconduct; and (B) follow-up evaluations of the laboratory, facility, or entity to review: (i) the implementation of any corrective action required under Subdivision (1)(C); or (ii) the conclusion of any retrospective reexamination under Paragraph (A). (c) The commission by contract may delegate the duties described by Subsections (a)(1) and (3) to any person the commission determines to be qualified to assume those duties. (d) The commission may require that a laboratory, facility, or entity investigated under this section pay any costs incurred to ensure compliance with Subsection (b)(1). (e) The commission shall make all investigation reports completed under Subsection (b)(1) available to the public. A report completed under Subsection (b)(1), in a subsequent civil or criminal proceeding, is not prima facie evidence of the information or findings contained in the report.

When the law was passed in 2005, the act was to apply to evidence tested or offered into evidence after September 1, 2005. The point, presumably, was to provide a safeguard against junk science being admitted into evidence after the effective date of the act by giving the Commission the power to regulate and investigate forensic facilities to ensure that proper scientific procedures were being followed.

The Attorney General takes this to mean that the Commission may not investigate any items or analysis entered into evidence prior to the effective date of the act.

Section 4 limits the scope of the Commission's inquiries to "accredited" entities - but does not define what constitutes an accredited entity. The acts also fails to state whether it mattered if the entity was accredited before or after the effective date.

The Attorney General then refers to Article 38.35(d)(1) to limit the scope of the Commission to entities that were accredited at the time the analysis took place.

Except as provided by Subsection (e), a forensic analysis of physical evidence under this article and expert testimony relating to the evidence are not admissible in a criminal action if, at the time of the analysis, the crime laboratory conducting the analysis was not accredited by the director under Section 411.0205, Government Code.

Well, that's all well and good, Mr. AG, but we're not talking about whether any item of evidence is admissible. We're talking about reviewing an old case to determine whether an innocent man was executed as the result of junk science. Now I understand that Gov. Goodhair is worried that when the world realizes he sat on his hands while an innocent man was murdered by the State of Texas it might cause a bit of a problem for his presidential campaign -- but Gov. Perry's political aspirations are secondary to whether or not an innocent man was murdered.

Gov. Perry began his assault on the Commission when he placed Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley in charge of the Commission on the eve of a hearing in which an arson expert was going to testify that the fire in question was not deliberately set. Through Mr. Bradley, Gov. Perry did everything he could to prevent the Commission from hearing evidence, in public, that Mr. Willingham was innocent. The last thing he wanted was a public record of the murder of an innocent man. Now Greg Abbott is providing cover for the fair-haired one.

Let's think about this for a second. The Commission may only investigate evidence analyzed by forensic facilities that were accredited at the time the evidence was offered. The two bozos who investigated the fire that killed Mr. Willingham's children weren't accredited by the DPS. They had no scientific background at all. Yet, they were allowed to testify that (based on their "gut feeling") Mr. Willingham set the fire that killed his children. So, because the state was permitted to put junk science before a jury that didn't know better, the Commission is not allowed to examine whether or not the evidence should have been admissible.

The purpose of the Commission should be to seek the truth, not to provide political cover for a governor who wants to be president.

A little of this and a bit of that

Here are a few odds and ends you might find interesting:

Bradley out as chairman of forensic commission

Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley's stint as chairman of the Texas Forensic Science Commission has come to an end as the senate concluded its session without voting on whether to accept Gov. Perry's nomination of Mr. Bradley.

Gov. Perry appointed Mr. Bradley to chair the commission in 2009 prior to a scheduled hearing in which the commission was to take testimony from Craig Beyler about the flawed science used by arson investigators that led to the execution of Cameron Willingham.

During his time as chairman, however, Mr. Bradley accomplished the fair haired governor's wishes to delay the release of the committee's findings until after the 2010 gubernatorial election.

Patrick cowers in fear

Texas State Senator Dan Patrick has once again proved himself to be a big bag of hot air as he withdrew his bill that would have criminalized groping by TSA personnel in airports. Mr. Patrick ran and hid in a closet after receiving a letter from the United States Attorney for the Western District of Texas threatening that TSA might cancel flights in Texas should the legislation pass.

Every year on the Fourth of July, Mr. Patrick rides in a car at the Memorial Villages 4th of July parade; and every year my wife gives me an ugly face when I mock Mr. Patrick in front of my daughters. Certainly my lack of civility and uncouthness is far worse than Mr. Patrick's demagoguery.

One wonders, was Mr. Patrick worried that the bill might actually pass?

If Mr. Patrick is so concerned about privacy issues for airline passengers, why isn't he concerned with the steady erosion of the 4th Amendment?

Wanted man

John Joe Gray is on the lam for allegedly assaulting a peace officer in December 1999. He was bonded out of jail a few days later and never appeared in court. He has lived on his armed compound in Henderson County, Texas with his family ever since.

Years ago he warned local law enforcement officials to bring extra body bags if they wanted to capture him. The local sheriff has said he's not risking the lives of any officers to bring in Mr. Gray.