Michael Morton, recently exonerated in the 1986 murder of his wife, on Wednesday won the latest legal battle in his attempt to question his prosecutors about allegedly hidden trial evidence.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied former Williamson County prosecutor Ken Anderson’s request to void a subpoena ordering him to answer questions, under oath and on videotape, from Morton’s lawyers.
The court denied Anderson’s motion without comment or explanation late Wednesday, other than to issue a statement from Judge Paul Womack noting that he did not take part in the decision because his wife served as part of Morton’s legal team 25 years ago.
Morton’s lawyers hope to question Anderson, now a district judge in Georgetown, about allegations that he hid evidence to secure Morton’s murder conviction in 1987. Morton, sentenced to a life term, served almost 25 years in prison.
Anderson turned to the appeals court after District Judge Sid Harle denied a similar request to quash the subpoena Monday.
According to briefs filed Wednesday by Morton lawyer John Raley, Anderson’s assistant prosecutor in the Morton trial, Mike Davis, has abandoned a legal challenge to his subpoena and is scheduling a time and place to provide his deposition.