A West Texas jury on Wednesday charged a guy for that murder of the Austin lady whose husband was wrongfully charged of her slaying and spent nearly twenty five years imprisonment prior to being exonerated.
Jurors in San Angelo found Mark Alan Norwood responsible for capital murder for that 1986 killing of Christine Morton, who had been assaulted in her own north Austin home. Prosecutors stated Norwood beat the lady to dying.
He was sentenced to existence imprisonment, but is qualified for parole after fifteen years. Jurors deliberated for around three hrs before coming back their verdict.
Morton's husband, Michael, was charged in her own dying later, but he was exonerated and freed this year after new Paternity testing ended on the bloody bandanna found close to the couple's home. Researchers stated the DNA evidence brought these to Norwood, whose DNA was at a nationwide database consequently of his lengthy criminal background.
Michael Morton hugged Norwood's mother outdoors the court docket following the trial. Also, he hugged Norwood's brother, Dale.
Morton told the Austin American-Statesman that what he was feeling was "an assorted bag. It isn't a meeting, and it is not really a happy day."
"Michael and the family are content that justice, finally, continues to be deliver to the memory of Christine Morton," John Raley, Morton's Houston-based attorney, stated within an email. Raley spent years employed by free around the situation after joining track of the Innocence Project.
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, whose office handled Norwood's prosecution, stated no verdict may bring back Christine Morton's existence or "recover the devastating years that her husband Michael Morton spent unjustly jailed on her murder."
"We only hope that present day verdict provides some much-deserved, but woefully postponed justice for any family that experienced so terribly for such a long time," Abbott stated inside a statement.
Norwood's sister, Connie Hoff, stated her brother have been railroaded because prosecutors had introduced evidence in the 1988 dying of Debra Masters Baker in Austin throughout the trial. Norwood, 58, has been billed with capital murder within the dying of Baker, who resided close to the Mortons.
Hoff stated her household is now dealing with exactly what the Morton family experienced as he was charged.
"This really is history repeating itself," she told the American-Statesman.
Throughout closing arguments earlier Wednesday, district attorney Lisa Tanner told jurors they have to convict Norwood "and never let evil leave this room along with you.Inch
Certainly one of Norwood's lawyers, Ariel Payan, recommended to jurors throughout closing arguments the evidence collected in the bandanna was contaminated.
Paternity testing wasn't available once the bloodstream around the bandanna was examined in 1986. The testing wasn't done until Michael Morton's lawyers spent years lobbying for this.
Prosecutors also told jurors that the gun Norwood stole in the Mortons' home and then offered linked him towards the murder. Morton claimed in the trial, telling jurors concerning the missing gun.
The trial occured in San Angelo after being moved from Williamson County, near Austin, due to publicity within the situation. The Texas Attorney General's Office wasn't choosing the dying penalty.
Recently, a unique hearing referred to as a court of inquiry occured to look at whether condition District Judge Ken Anderson behaved incorrectly later when, as Williamson County da, he punished Michael Morton. Morton's lawyers have accused Anderson of deliberately hiding evidence.
Anderson has refused any wrongdoing. A choice with a judge on whether Anderson should face criminal charges within the situation might come the following month. Anderson is also being prosecuted through the Condition Bar of Texas for his conduct within the Morton situation.
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