Wrongfully convicted for the murder of his wife, Christine, Michael Morton spent 25 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. Morton has faced extreme injustice, served by the system. In 2012, he was released from imprisonment by DNA evidence that proved he was in fact an innocent man.
As one man was thrown into the system that had failed him, another was growing up without either parent by his side. Eric Olson, the son of Christine and Michael, was 3 years old when his mother was murdered. He also was there to witness the murder, which was a fact that the prosecutor withheld from Morton’s defense team. As he grew older, Eric said he realized how “weird the situation was.” When he was a teenager, he wrote a letter to his father explaining that he wanted to stop the visits.
Eric was adopted by his biological mother’s sister, Marylee Kirkpatrick. From then on, he led as normal a life as a boy in his situation could. He went to college at Texas State University-San Marcos. He graduated, moved back to Houston and began working at the Catholic preparatory high school he had attended.
There, he met Maggie Mahoey in 2009 and married in 2011. Eric has little to no recollection of his childhood with his biological parents. He reminisces about the hospital to correct a congenital heart defect and that the family has a dog. But he knows now, it may be a blessing that other memories disappeared.
So many years of Eric’s life, as well as Christine’s and Michael’s families, were spent convinced that MIchael was undoubtedly guilty. Finally, not long after his wedding, Eric received an email from Raley, Morton’s pro bono lawyer in Houston. Raley, who he had never met, wanted to talk to him about developments in his father’s case (texastribune.org). At first, Eric was skeptical, thinking it was a scheme or some kind of hoax, but after Raley persistence, the facts unfolded. Eventually, Michael Morton received the justice he so rightfully deserved.
“I would love seeing him, I was fascinated with his every move” Morton says, remembering his son. “[Eric] was becoming more distant. He was becoming less mine.” (cnn.com)
“Party of my life was taken away, first of all, because my mother was killed. Then I don’t understand why somebody would want to continue that chain of events by taking away someone’s father” Eric said.
A family was diminished by a flawed justice system. Now, Eric Olson and Michael Morton have to pick up the pieces that were discarded by a false conviction. Morton intends to see that the prosecutor responsible for his convinction, Ken Anderson, is held accountable for his actions.
“If there’s a better time to have this all come full circle, I can’t think of it. This is like a movie,” Eric said. “But it’s good now. It’s not like a scary movie anymore.”