The former Williamson County District Attorney who helped secure a 25-year sentence for Michael Morton for a crime he didn’t commit apologized today and suggested he has been wracked with guilt. Ken Anderson, now a Williamson County district judge, held a last minute press conference this afternoon.
“I don’t know how strong I can say this,” he said on a live stream of the news conference that we watched on KXAN’s website. “If there’s anybody who’s confused about whether I’m beating myself up and whether I’m absolutely sick about this case, you’re wrong, because I am.”
But Anderson stopped short of admitting any wrongdoing, adding that, “I’m apologizing for the system’s failure.”
Anderson was required to testify before an inquiry last month over how prosecutors secured a wrongful conviction in the case of Michael Morton, who was convicted for the murder of his wife in 1986 but exonerated by DNA evidence in October. Anderson had tried and failed to avoid testifying.
Last week, a Bastrop man was arrested in connection with the murder, after officials said he was linked by DNA evidence to a bloody bandana found near the crime scene.
