‘Getting Life’ chronicles husband’s wrongful imprisonment
“Getting Life”
by Michael Morton
“Getting Life” grabbed my attention when it was released because at the time I was practicing criminal defense law in Texas, and a new law nicknamed the “Michael Morton Act” had just come into effect, impacting most of my cases.
Plot: In August of 1986, Michael Morton, a loving husband and father, suffered the worst blow imaginable. After work, he went to his babysitter’s house to pick up his son, Eric. The babysitter, confused, said Michael’s wife, Chris, had not dropped Eric off that day. When Michael called his house and the local sheriff picked up the phone, he knew something terrible had happened, and he rushed home to find that his wife had been brutally murdered. And worse – it had happened in the presence of young Eric.
The Williamson County Sheriff’s Department “investigated” Chris Morton’s murder with Michael as their No. 1 suspect. Five weeks later, they arrested him. However, the problem was that certain exculpatory evidence was never handed over to the defense (a problem the Texas legislature later corrected with the Michael Morton Act). Eric was an eyewitness to this murder and specifically said, “Daddy was not home” and a “monster” had come in and done this to his mother. Additionally, Chris’ credit card was found a few days later in San Antonio, but Williamson County investigators were so sure Michael had done this horrendous act that they did not look into the credit card found miles away.
Perhaps most importantly, a bloodsplattered bandana was found about 100 yards away from the Mortons’ home. Instead of doing a DNA test on this bandana, again the authorities refused to test it or even tell the defense it existed, despite the defense’s request for this information.
After a nine-day trial at which the district attorney presented no physical evidence tying Michael to the crime, Michael was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
The book follows Michael through the investigation, trial and his lengthy 25- year journey of exoneration. As a reader, you learn about life in Texas prisons, the people he met and how hard he worked to clear his name. As the subtitle (“An innocent man’s 25-year journey from prison to peace”) gives away, he was eventually exonerated, and Chris’ real killer was convicted. Sadly, while Michael was sitting in prison for this crime he did not commit, the actual murderer took another victim’s life in the same way.
Why you would recommend this book? I recommend this book mostly because Michael Morton gives us a perspective of the criminal justice system that many of us would never be familiar with. The book is an “easy read,” not written from a place of bitterness but rather a desire to improve a system that has flaws. For a man who could be very angry about what happened to him, he does not present his story that way, something I very much appreciated about this book.
That moment you were on the edge of your seat: This book was a little different than most of the books I read because it was a memoir, and I typically read fiction. While this memoir’s title and subtitle gave away the ending, I continued to find myself on the edge of my seat throughout several pivotal moments in the book. Although I knew the results of the DNA test would show Michael was not the killer, I was still drawn into the story, knowing it was his last shot for exoneration. An additional compelling moment was finding out who the real killer was.
Lasting impressions: One of the most lasting impressions this book left me with was the sheer love this man had for his wife. Just reading the way he writes about her, you know he never could have killed her, and that is something that will always stick with me about this story.
He is also one of the most tenacious people I have ever read about. This man worked tirelessly to clear his name for 25 years, and while it is clear that it got exhausting and defeating, he never gave up or became bitter.
Finally, as a criminal defense attorney myself, I was very impressed with the hard work that all of his attorneys did, and I found their role in his story to be incredibly enlightening and encouraging.
What are you reading next?
“Big Little Lies” by Liane Moriarty
Sarah Giglio is an attorney at the firm, Elton B. Richey & Associates, LLC in Shreveport.
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