Michael Morton

First Name	Michael
Last Name	Morton
Year of Conviction	1987
Year of Exoneration	2011
Testing inculpated culprit	Cold Hit
State of Conviction	Texas
Trial, Bench Trial, or Guilty Plea	Trial
Type of Crime	Murder
Death Sentence	No
Life / LWOP sentence	Life
Gender of Exoneree	Male
Race of exoneree	White
Juvenile	No
Did the defendant testify at trial?	Yes
Types of evidence at trial	Forensic Evidence Other
Type of Forensic Evidence	Hair Serology
Types of Flawed Forensics	Valid
Brief Quote / Description of Testimony	Serological analysis detected blood group substances consistent with both the victim and the defendant. Over a dozen fingerprintsidentified on the glass sliding door and elsewhere excluded Morton and other family members. First examiner found hair found "consistent" with both victim and husband. Second examiner found hairs "to exhibit the same microscopic characteristics as known public hair" from the defendant. Wood chips were also found to have had the same microscopic characteristics.
Highest level reached	State Post Conviction
Claims Raised During All Appeals and Postconviction	Brady Fourth Amendment Jackson Claim State Law Evidence Claim
Harmless Error Rulings	NP
Citations to judicial opinions	Morton v. State, 761 S.W.2d 876 (Tex.App.–Austin 1988) Morton v. State, 2011 WL 3828419 (Tex.App.-Austin 2011) In re Morton, 326 S.W.3d 634 (Tex.App.–Austin 2010)