Concealing of evidence highlighted in Texas wrongful conviction

Activists say the case of Michael Morton, exonerated of murder after 25 years in prison, underscores a problem of prosecutors withholding material that could help defendants.

by Molly Hennessy-Fiske and David G. Savage, Los Angeles Times

December 18, 2011

Reporting from Houston and Washington

The case of a grocery store clerk wrongly convicted of murdering his wife has rocked the legal system across Texas, and not just because an innocent man served 25 years of a life sentence.

Supporters of Michael Morton, who was set free in October, say he might never been convicted if a prominent prosecutor had shared significant evidence with the defense at the time of the trial.

"Mr. Morton was the victim of serious prosecutorial misconduct that … completely ripped apart his family," said Barry Scheck, co-director of the Innocence Project in New York, which represented Morton in his appeal.

On Monday, Morton and his lawyers plan to ask District Judge Sid Harle to take action against the lead prosecutor in the case, Ken Anderson, now a county judge.

The case highlights what critics say has become a recurring problem in Texas and across the nation: prosecutors concealing evidence that could undercut their cases.

The Supreme Court, in the landmark Brady vs. Maryland ruling in 1963, said prosecutors have a duty to share evidence that indicates a defendant is not guilty. But critics say more checks are needed to ensure prosecutors hand over such evidence.

"We have similar problems with discovery everywhere," Scheck said, speaking of the process in which the defense and the prosecution disclose their evidence to each other. "True discovery reform is really needed. We have to have real transparency."

Morton, 57, was ultimately freed thanks to DNA evidence that was not available when his wife was beaten to death. But his defense team argues that early signs indicated another man was the killer.

Christine Morton's body was found the morning of Aug. 13, 1986, in her home in the Austin suburb of Georgetown. She had been attacked as her 3-year-old son watched. Her bloodied body was covered with a comforter, suitcase and laundry hamper.

Morton's purse was missing, and a sliding glass door had been left open, suggesting an intruder had assaulted her.

But investigators found a note taped to Morton's bathroom mirror written by her husband before he left for work, saying he was "hurt" that she had refused to have sex with him on his birthday the night before. He immediately became their chief suspect.

At pretrial conferences and hearings in 1987, Morton's lawyer requested all of the lead investigator's reports and notes. There wasn't much.

Yet, after Morton was convicted, one of the prosecutors was heard telling the jury that the lead investigator's reports were several inches thick, and that if the defense had seen them, it would have been able to raise more doubt about the prosecution's case. Morton's lawyer witnessed the exchange and cited it in his motion for a new trial.

The judge denied the motion but ordered all of the material that had been turned over sealed in a slim envelope for review.

Decades passed. Eventually, through public records requests, Morton's defenders found investigators' reports that raised questions about the prosecution's case. One report said Christine Morton's missing Visa card had been used in San Antonio days after the murder by a woman local police said had a criminal record, and a check made out to Christine Morton was cashed nine days after her death, her signature forged.

A report by a sheriff's investigator said that before the murder, one of the Mortons' neighbors had seen a man repeatedly park a green van on the street behind the Mortons' house, get out and walk around. The note, dated the day after the murder, said another neighbor might know where the man lived.

Christine Morton's mother had reported to investigators that the couple's son, Eric, had witnessed the killing and provided a detailed account of how a man he called "the monster" beat his mother to death while his father was gone. Prosecutors received a transcript of her account, records showed.

"Any trial judge who would have seen this would have turned it over to the defense," Scheck said.

But when Morton's legal team persuaded another judge to open the sealed envelope in August, none of that material was inside. All it contained was a consent form Morton signed allowing for the search of his home and pickup truck and a five-page report from the lead investigator.

After Morton was released from prison Oct. 4, the state bar began examining alleged misconduct by prosecutors.

Williamson County Dist. Atty. John Bradley defended his handling of the case. "The envelope — nobody even knew about it or thought about it until the Innocence Project asked that it be unsealed," Bradley said in an interview. "We all expected it to have more documents in it."

In October, a judge compelled former Williamson County Sgt. Don Wood, the lead investigator in the case, to testify under oath behind closed doors .

According to a transcript of the proceeding that was later released, Wood, 72, said he amassed a stack of investigative reports nearly 4 inches thick, which went to prosecutors. "I turned over everything I had," Wood said.

Mike Davis, the former assistant district attorney, was also compelled to testify .

According to a transcript, Davis blamed lead prosecutor Anderson for withholding evidence.

Anderson testified in October that he did not recall the check and credit card evidence, despite having written about the case in his 1997 book, "Crime in Texas." He insisted that he had complied with the judge's order to turn over reports placed in the sealed envelope, according to the transcript .

"I was as shocked as anybody when those field notes weren't in the unsealed report," Anderson said.

In November, Anderson called a news conference to formally apologize "for the system's failure," not his own. "In my heart, I know there was no misconduct," he said.

Defense attorneys say the case highlights the need for "open file" policies and legislation to enforce the Supreme Court's Brady ruling. North Carolina was among the first states to enact such legislation in 2004, requiring automatic disclosure of all nonprivileged information in the prosecution's file, after several death row inmates were exonerated, in part because of evidence prosecutors had withheld.

In the end, Morton was exonerated by DNA discovered on a bloody blue bandanna his brother-in-law found near the murder scene and delivered to investigators the day after the murder.

Bradley, who had fought attempts to unseal the evidence envelope, also had refused to release the bandanna for testing, dismissing claims by Morton's lawyers that there was a "mystery killer" on the loose. A judge ordered the DNA test, and last summer the results showed that DNA came from Christine Morton and an unknown white male.

Last month, a new suspect whose DNA matches that on the bandanna, Mark Alan Norwood, 57, was arrested and charged with Morton's murder.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-texas-prosecutors-20111219,0,3577045,print.story

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Food stamps for foster kids

L.A. County should help young people leaving foster care make the transition to self-sufficiency.

December 19, 2011

It used to be that when children in foster care turned 18, their surrogate parent — the county — would wash its figurative hands, wish the youth well and hope to never see them again. But the county too often does see them again, in court, in jail, living on the street, in substance-abuse treatment, in mental healthcare or in other programs for the traumatized and the have-nots. Even 18-year-olds with loving, functional families and the best care and support are seldom ready for independence and self-sufficiency, so it would be foolish to believe that foster youth aging out of the system without traditional family help will find jobs, get apartments and otherwise get on with the business of living without transitional assistance.

Several years ago California became one of a number of states that offered to help former foster youth navigate their way to age 21 if they could show they could keep a job or go to college. Much of that assistance has been dropped or delayed because of the poor economy and resulting budget crises. But Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas wants Los Angeles County to at least do its part to make certain that young people moving out of foster care don't go hungry. His motion on Tuesday's agenda calls on the county to make sure that ex-foster youth who need help between the ages of 18 and 21 are directed to CalFresh, the federally funded nutrition program more popularly referred to as "food stamps."

It's a good idea, and the supervisors should adopt it. Other counties make sure that most or all of their former wards apply if they need to, but in Los Angeles County the number is a dismal 8%. Ridley-Thomas' motion would deliver county departments the swift kick they need to ensure that the federal program actually gets some use here. As part of the exit process from foster care, 18-year-olds would be informed of their already existing right to get food assistance. The program would not create a new class of recipient.

Foster youth too often get sucked into a virtual pipeline that dumps them right back into the county's lap after they're emancipated and perpetuates the same dysfunction that affected their families in the first place. It's certainly in the public interest, and the young adults' interests as well, for them to become independent rather than move immediately to welfare. The county has a youth self-sufficiency policy with just that in mind.

But transition assistance, including connecting youth in need to CalFresh, is not welfare. In fact it's the opposite; it helps youth get on their feet in the important years from 18 to 21 precisely so they don't become a permanent part of the county system. It picks up the pieces of the policy already adopted by the state and the county to help move former foster children to independence.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-ed-foster-20111216,0,4550950,print.story

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From Google News

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Study: 1 in 3 American Youth Are Arrested By Age 23

The study is the first since the 1960s to try to determine the percentage of youth who are arrested. Previously, the research estimated that 22% of Americans had been arrested at least once for a non-traffic violation by age 23.

“We say in the paper that we think the real figure is on the order of 1 in 3,” says Robert Brame, lead author of the new study and a professor of criminal justice and criminology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

The broad range in the estimate found by Brame and his team — from 25.3% to 41.4% — is due to missing data. The researchers used 1997-2008 data from the National Survey of Youth, which included more than 7,000 teens, but some didn't have data from some of the years.

Researchers have not completed an analysis of the data by race, but prior studies suggest that minorities are arrested more frequently than whites. Previous research finds, for example, that black youth are arrested at double the rate of white youth for drug crimes, even though a larger proportion of white youth actually use and sell drugs.

Although it may seem shocking that at least one-third of U.S. youth has an arrest record, those who study juvenile crime don't find the figure to be out of line. Since the 1970s, America has become much tougher on crime, lengthening sentences, increasing the police force and quintupling the number of people incarcerated. During that time, the number of Americans in prison has gone from half a million to 2.3 million, with approximately 93,000 incarcerated youth. Given the changes in the criminal justice system, some increase in youth arrests was to be expected.

“As a criminologist, I'm not terribly surprised by it,” says Brame.

The study captured arrests for all offenses other than traffic violations, including underage drinking, shoplifting, truancy, robbery, assault and murder. Most teens who are arrested are cited for minor infractions and don't end up imprisoned. Still, for those who are, the detrimental effect of being detained may outlast the actual sentence.

Although the literature is mixed, several previous studies indicate that kids who are incarcerated do significantly worse later on, compared with those who are given alternative sentences that allow them to remain in their communities. One study, for example, compared children who committed the same crimes but wound up with harsh or lenient sentences: those who were sentenced to juvenile detention were three times more likely to be re-incarcerated as adults, compared with those whose judges gave them lighter, alternative sentences.

“It's premature to say that we know sanctions for juvenile justice are ‘crimogenic,'” says Brame. “It may vary by type of offender, jurisdiction and types of services.”

But researchers do know that teens who wind up in trouble with the law tend to have early risk factors, such as having a troubled family, childhood behavior problems or difficulty in school. About two-thirds of teens who serve time in a correctional institution may have a serious mental illness. Given that these risk factors can arise early, Brame thinks that pediatricians may be able to make a difference.

If pediatricians are made aware of how common arrest is, Brame says, they can identify at-risk kids and their parents, and connect families with services that can help troubled youth find better ways to cope, helping to either prevent arrest or mitigate its consequences.

The study was published in Pediatrics .

http://healthland.time.com/2011/12/19/study-1-in-3-american-youth-are-arrested-by-age-23/

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Maryland

Crime Conundrum: Riverdale Park Works To Improve Community Policing

Riverdale Park police are making an effort to establish good communication and relationships with the community in order to further impact crime.

Violent crime was down in Riverdale Park in the first six months of this year compared to the same period in 2010, mirroring statistics that show an overall decrease in crime in Prince George's County.

However, Riverdale Park Police Chief David Morris said that property crimes, which include theft, burglary and automobile theft, remained the same as last year.

There were 28 violent crimes reported in Riverdale Park from January through the end of October, police report, compared to 41 in the same 10 months of 2010.

But there were 130 reports of property crime in the first six months of both 2010 and 2011, Morris said. Property crimes are more common than crimes of violence because criminals don't have to interact with their victims , he explained.

Despite fewer violent crimes, Morris said there is still a perception that the area is not safe.

“From a public safety perspective, I constantly try to address the perception of safety in Riverdale Park,” Morris said. “It doesn't matter what the numbers say if people don't feel safe.”

Changing a perception is difficult, Morris said, because a lower crime rate means nothing to the person who has been a victim of a crime.

Morris, who has been in police work for 26 years, said police have focused efforts on Ward 1 and Ward 2 after receiving reports of drug and drug-related crimes. Morris said police conducted surveillance in those areas and based on the information they gathered, were able to make several arrests in drug-related offenses.

Riverdale Park police also work to educate people on how to avoid becoming victims.

Morris encourages residents to join community associations and other civic groups, as well as to participate in vacation watch, which involves informing local police when they will be out of town and leaving contact information.

“What I find is that when folks get actively involved in their own safety, then they tend to feel safer,” Morris said.

In the winter, he said motor vehicle thefts tend to increase, largely because people leave their cars on unattended to warm up, a crime in itself for which residents can receive a $70 fine and a point on their licenses. Some high school students see the idling cars as an opportunity to shorten the walk to school on cold days, Morris said, adding that they usually leave the car a few blocks from the school.

Ward 5 Councilman Raymond Rivas started a 4-H program in Park Tanglewood Apartments where he works as the community manager. The purpose of the club is to get the children in the building involved in activities to keep them out of trouble, Rivas said.

Part of the goal, Rivas said, is to build their self-esteem and character; all the children in his group have to sign a behavioral expectation form, which requires them to stay away from underage drinking, drugs and other illicit activities.

However, Rivas says this does not guarantee that children won't decide to explore other options. He's had to remove people from the program because they began experimenting with drinking, were skipping school and taking joyrides.

“The older ones start experimenting with these things, and I don't want to have to get them out of the group, but it's tough because I have 10- and 12-year-olds in the group that I want to try to keep away from those patterns,” Rivas said.

http://riverdalepark.patch.com/articles/crime-conundrum-riverdale-park-works-to-improve-community-policing

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Editorial

Immigration reform: Scrap Secure Communities

Secure Communities was meant to deport immigrants with serious criminal convictions. But it has targeted non-criminals and even U.S. citizens. If it can't be fixed, it should be ended.

December 19, 2011

When the Secure Communities program was launched by the federal government in 2008, it was billed as a way to find and deport immigrants with serious criminal convictions. In the three years since then, it has become clear that the program has instead targeted many non-criminals. And recently it was revealed that the program has also managed to ensnare more than 3,000 U.S. citizens as well.

Indeed, in a news conference last week, civil rights activists identified four U.S. citizens from Los Angeles who were mistakenly detained under the program. It's past time for the Obama administration to scrap this problem-plagued enforcement plan.

Under Secure Communities, state and local police share the fingerprints of anyone arrested and jailed with federal immigration officials, who then check them against FBI and immigration databases. That seems simple enough. Yet somehow it isn't working out the way it's supposed to.

The program is seriously flawed. More than half of the 148,841 immigrants removed as of October have either no criminal convictions or minor ones, despite the government's stated goal of targeting serious criminals. A second problem is that the program doesn't allow states and localities to opt out, even though they were told they would be able to when they were first enlisted to sign up.

And Secure Communities isn't actually helping protect communities. At least not according to a federal task force charged with reviewing the program. In September, the group found that the program has had a negative impact on community policing because it made immigrants more reluctant to report crimes as either witnesses or victims.

Homeland Security Assistant Secretary John Morton says the database used to flag those who are deportable will be scrubbed to ensure accuracy. New forms and rules requiring police to inform individuals that they are being held on immigration charges will be issued soon, and a hotline will be established so detainees can call the agency directly to report problems.

But that's not enough, not when you are talking about deporting citizens from their own country. A hotline or a new form wouldn't have prevented Antonio Montejano's illegal detention. He was born in California and arrested last month in Santa Monica for allegedly shoplifting. Montejano was sent to an overcrowded Los Angeles County jail on an immigration hold even though he says he repeatedly told every officer he came into contact with that he was born in the United States and is a citizen. In all, the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Law and Social Policy at UC Berkeley estimated that some 3,600 U.S. citizens were probably apprehended under Secure Communities.

It defies reason for the government to claim that Secure Communities is successfully deporting the worst or most dangerous immigrants. It is becoming increasingly clear that this is an unfair and arbitrary system plagued by mistakes and failures. If it can't be fixed — and it increasingly appears that hotlines and revamped forms will not do the trick— it should be scrapped.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-ed-secure-20111219,0,1705282,print.story

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