A top prosecutor in Williamson County, Texas has been accused of hiding evidence in a murder case which saw the wrong man jailed for 25 years and allowed the real killer to walk free and murder again.
Ken Anderson won prosecutor of the year for getting a conviction in the case of Michael Morton, from Texas, who was accused of bludgeoning his wife to death in 1986 while their three-year-old son sat in another room in their home.
Morton always denied he had anything to do with his wife Christine's death and 25 years later, DNA evidence linked another man to the crime.
Evidence which was said to be hidden from the defense team has lead to a criminal inquiry against Anderson.
Mr Morton was jailed for life in 1987 after being convicted of murder, despite the fact no evidence linked him directly to the crime and he had no criminal record.
His wife was found dead at their home in Williamson County, Texas, having been beaten with a blunt wooden object which was never found.
His lawyers, who battled tirelessly for years to prove his innocence, found that prosecutors had a statement from both his son – who witnessed the brutal murder – and a neighbor, who saw a suspicious man in the area.
Speaking to CBS' 60 Minutes about what it was like to walk free, Mr Morton said: 'It was so alien at first. It wasn't quite real. We stepped out of the courtroom and it was a beautiful sunny day.
'The sun felt so good on my face, on my skin. I can just feel like I was just drinking in the sunshine. Free sun feels different, I know it sounds stupid, but it does.'
Williamson County District Attorney Ken Anderson told the court that Morton murdered his wife because she wouldn't have sex with him, calling him violent and unremorseful.
His defense attorneys suspected the prosecution was withholding evidence the whole way through the trial and it was only recently, after years of legal wrangling that they were able to obtain the file from the original trial.
Lawyer for the Innocence Project John Raley said the documents they saw would have proved that Michael Morton was innocent and he would never have been sent to jail. Though an attorney for Anderson denies it would have been enough for a not-guilty verdict.
Mr Raley is referring to a police report in which Christine's mother told investigators that her three-year-old grandson Eric witnessed the horrific murder and described in detail about the 'monster' with the 'big mustache' that killed his mother.
When asked if daddy was there, he said: 'No, mommy and Eric was there,' according to the police report.
A neighbor also described seeing a suspicious man 'park a green van on the street' and 'walk into the wooded area' behind the Morton home. This was also never released by the prosecutor, who was legally and ethically obliged to release the evidence.
Ken Anderson went on to be named prosecutor of the year in Texas right after Morton's conviction and since 2002 he's been a district judge in the same court where he was tried.
The Innocence Project fought for five years to DNA test a bloody bandana found near the crime scene.
When they were eventually granted permission, they found the blood of Christine Morton and the DNA of known felon Mark Alan Norwood, who's since been arrested for her murder.
In his only public statement made since Morton was acquitted, Anderson admitted a mistake had been made but denied it being his fault.
He said: 'I want to formally apologize for the system's failure to Mr Morton…In my heart I know there was no misconduct whatsoever.'
In February, a Texas judge agreed with Michael Morton's legal team that there was probable cause to believe Ken Anderson violated the law, and Anderson is now the subject of a special criminal inquiry.
During his 25 years in prison, Morton's son Eric – apparently convinced by others of his father's guilt – told him he did not want to have any further contact with him.
They have recently been reunited and Morton has received almost $2 million compensation for his wrongful conviction.
Speaking about the experience now, he told 60 Minutes: 'I try to be very forgiving. But I'll be honest, not only is the actual murderer responsible for this, but the people who put me there.
'I wanted to get back at 'em. And when I finally let that go and put it away, it's like I dropped 25 pounds. I just felt ahhh.
'One of the things driving me is, I don't want this to happen to anybody else. Revenge isn't the issue here. Revenge, I know, doesn't work. But accountability works. It's what balances out. It's the equilibrium.'