Ken Anderson Court of Inquiry Set to Begin Sept. 11

Update, July 17, 5:40 p.m.:

Special prosecutor Rusty Hardin said that former Williamson County District Attorney Ken Anderson's court of inquiry, which had been scheduled to begin Sept. 11, has been moved back to Dec. 10.

Original story:

The court of inquiry that will investigate allegations of prosecutorial misconduct against the prosecutor who oversaw the wrongful conviction of Michael Morton is set to begin Sept. 11, a lawyer for Morton said Tuesday.

Tarrant County Judge Louis Sturns set the date during a telephone hearing Tuesday between attorneys for Morton and former Williamson County District Attorney Ken Anderson. Cynthia Orr, an attorney for Morton, said the judge scheduled the events to begin after special prosecutor Rusty Hardin finishes a trial in which he is representing former Major League Baseball pitcher Roger Clemens in a steroids-related case. A pretrial hearing is scheduled for August.

Orr said a former Houston police officer has also been appointed as an investigator to examine the case against Anderson, who is now a Williamson County state district judge.

A venue for the court of inquiry hasn’t been determined.

In 1987, Anderson prosecuted Morton for the murder of his wife. Morton was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison after Anderson convinced the jury that he had beaten his wife to death because she didn't have sex with him on his birthday.

DNA testing last year showed that Morton was innocent and linked his wife's murder to another man. Morton was freed in October, after spending nearly 25 years in prison. Mark Norwood, a 57-year-old Bastrop dishwasher, has been indicted in Christine Morton's murder and is awaiting trial in the Williamson County Jail.

Morton's lawyers allege that during the trial, Anderson deliberately withheld evidence that would have exonerated him.

Anderson has said that while he regrets that the judicial system made mistakes in Morton's case, he did nothing wrong.