GEORGETOWN, Texas (AP) — A court of inquiry is set to examine whether a Texas judge should face criminal charges in the case of a man who was wrongfully imprisoned for nearly 25 years for his wife’s murder.

The legal proceeding beginning Monday in Central Texas will determine whether Judge Ken Anderson acted improperly in 1987 when he was a district attorney prosecuting Michael Morton.

Morton was released in 2011 after new DNA testing showed he didn’t kill his wife in 1986. Anderson is accused of hiding evidence and has denied any wrongdoing in prosecuting the case.

Tarrant County Judge Louis Sturns will hear evidence before deciding if Anderson acted improperly. Sturns could then decide whether a grand jury should review the case.

A court of inquiry is an obscure and rarely used legal procedure that allows a judge to look into a case where a mistake is alleged. It’s been most often used after executions – since the state has no simple legal channel to formally.

Judge Charles Baird ordered one in the case of executed inmate Cameron Todd Willingham but it was halted by an appeals court. Willingham was put to death after being convicted of setting a fire in 1991 that killed his three young daughters.

In October, his family filed a petition with the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to recommend a posthumous pardon.

No word on when the board will make that decision.

 

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