but i told the court, and i m quoting, your honor, there is a blood stained bandanna that was found at the crime scene. it was found, taken into custody by the sheriff. it contained a hair. this bandanna may contain the blood of the victim christine morton. plus perhaps mingled with the blood of the murderer. but it may also contain skin cells, saliva, sweat, and there s also this hair that may contain the dna of the murderer. they ve never been subjected to dna testing. i was very honest with the judges we were in front of. i would say, look, judge. we don t know if this bandanna is connected to the crime. it certainly seems like a real possibility given that it s a quiet, suburban neighborhood. doesn t have a lot of violent crime going on. there s a bloody murder and then a hundred feet away there s a bandanna with somebody s blood on it. but sure it could be from a construction worker. it could be from someone who cut themselves. there s only one way to find out which is do a dna
you might recall that mark norwood was indicted for the murder of christine morton when michael morton was found innocent of those charges after spending 25 years in prison. this morning norwood stood in court next to his attorney. officials say dna on a crime scene bandanna helped free morton because it belongs to norwood. in williamson county this morning, attorneys for the innocence project filed a report on their investigation of the michael morton case. it alleges that then-attorney ken anderson refused to call chief investigator don wood to the witness stand because he didn t want to turn over key documents in wood s file to morton s defense lawyer. and as woefully inadequate as i realize it is, i want to formally apologize for the system s failure to mr. morton and to every other person who was adversely affected by this verdict. do you feel he s responsible for your mother s murder? in part, absolutely.
our first motion. and we sought dna testing on the swabs from christine s body. we asked for the bloody bandanna found a hundred yards behind the house along what we always believed to be the escape route of the murderer to be dna tested. john bradley was the district attorney when we wanted the tests done. so i called up mr. bradley and i introduced myself. and i tried to explain to him the logic of what we were doing, that we were only seeking the truth. and he said it would muddy the waters. that testing the dna would muddy the waters. and i didn t understand what he meant. i said, mr. bradley, truth clarifies. why oppose it? it makes no sense. but he continued to oppose it. he asked for several extensions in even responding to our motions.
don wood says it. he said that rita said you need to stop looking at michael. and go after the monster. and we never heard that. and there was also a report from the first week of the investigation about a green van where a man would get out and go into the woods behind the house. which is where they found the bandanna. he was casing the house. before the murder. that was in their file. in 1987. they knew. once we got the dna results, i mean, a, it was christine morton s blood, and b, that it wasn t michael s blood or skin cells, i should say, on the bandanna. none of his dna. you know, that was terrific. the dna of this other person was intermingled with christine s dna. it really places the bandanna at
superior service, best selection, lowest price, guaranteed! sleep train your ticket to a better night s sleep we got the news that norwood had been identified through the dna database as the man whose dna was on the bandanna almost 25 years to the day from when christine was killed.