spend the rest of his life in a texas prison, but after a 25-year battle, michael morton was exonerated. the real murderer discovered from dna evidence. this is the story told in the cnn film an unreal dream and morton spoke with chris cuomo about he spent all that time, how that time was spent in prison knowing all along he was innocent. i am probably the personification of that old axiom remember from school about you can t prove a negative. how do you prove you didn t do something. how rough was it inside? i never liked it but i got used to it. how long did it take you? probably 14 or 15 years. 14 or 15 years. to get where i was used to it. are the first years the hardest? the first years are hard just because it s a shock and it s new and it s constant
adjustment. constant recalibration. you say i always thought that i would get out. what fueled the hope? it s difficult for me to say whether it was just faith that i knew i was right and i wasn t guilty, that this would work out, or just that i didn t know how deep i was in. again, make sure you watch this incredible cnn film an unreal dream. it airs tonight 9:00 eastern and pacific only here on cnn. coming up, pope francis is certainly making news a lot recently. today, the pope is launching a commission to prevent child abuse. reaction pouring in from all around the world. we ll be right back. once upon a time, an insurance clerk stumbled upon a cottage. [knock] no one was at home, but on the kitchen table sat three insurance policies. the first had lots of coverage. the second, only a little.
time now for the buried lead, that s what we call stories that we don t think have gotten enough attention. this story, there was actually something literally buried, evidence that proved a man was locked away for a quarter century for a crime he did not commit. michael morton was convicted in 1987 of killing his wife christine even though he repeatedly denied it. the documentary an unreal dream airing tonight on cnn, morton recounts his confidence that he would be found not guilty. i didn t think i was going to get convicted. it was going to be a longish trial, but then it would be revealed that there can be no there, there. there s nothing to convict. there s nothing hard. there s nothing that says look, this guy did it. there s nothing beyond a reasonable doubt. and i couldn t imagine what could possibly be manufactured to make 12 people think that i had killed my wife. he was wrong. he was sentenced to life and spent 25 years in prison before his attorneys and a group called
falsely accused of his wife s murder back in 1986, ripped from his precious 3-year-old son. convicted, sentenced and basically thrown in jail for the rest of his life in a texas prison. but after a 25-year battle, that is over. michael morton has been exonerated. dna evidence pointed to the real murderer, his incredible story is being told in the cnn film, an unreal dream and it airs tomorrow on cnn. he talks in vivid detail about the harsh reality of a life behind bars. when i first got to the texas penitentiary, the first thing they do is strip you naked and search you. you re given a pair of state boxers. i realized that the full gravity of the place. because as i was standing in line to get my boots, i noticed the guy in front of me.
with kim jung -un who rodman called, and i quote, his friend for life. a woman in canada is the winner of the lottery even though she lost her ticket and the money went unclaimed for nearly a year. she called the experience, and i m quoting her now, a very weird and wonderful journey. so what if you were convicted of a crime that you didn t commit. what if no one believed you were innocent, not even your own son? this is the incredible story of an innocent man set to jail for killing his wife and his fight to clear his name. can the truth set him free? watch the cnn films an unreal dream that is tomorrow night at 9:00 p.m. eastern here on cnn. just ahead, nick robertson recalls surviving a train crash