Languages: English, Spanish John F. Bradley is the founding partner of the Bradley Legal Group, P.A., located in the heart of downtown Fort Lauderdale, Florida. A widely-read local blog, the Wilco Watchdog, relentlessly dissected Bradley’s missteps in the case: Bradley mocked Mr. Morton’s claim that DNA testing on the bandana and other items could possibly be linked, in Mr. Bradley’s words, to “a mystery killer”… Bradley derided Michael Morton’s request to test the evidence in light of the unsolved case as “silly,” and he told Rick Casey of the Houston Chronicle that Morton was “grasping at straws” by refusing to give up his quest for DNA testing. But I don’t want to force myself on him. Actually, it was in the middle of the recession. And he said Bradley did not encourage prosecutors to be friendly with defense lawyers. And I think in the right time and the right place when he wishes to I’ll be glad to do that. JB: You know, to my utter shock and surprise, I find that I can say without hesitation that he was a gentleman and utterly transparent and honest in how we worked on this. Like many convicted criminals, Morton maintained his innocence, arguing that an intruder must have killed his wife after he left for work in the morning. John Bradley District Attorney Campaign Website. She introduced me to Mardi Gras, Jazz Fest, gumbo. In his first public comments about the case this week, Anderson acknowledged the outcome in the Morton prosecution was wrong and said he is anguished over the results, both Morton’s wrongful imprisonment and Baker’s death at the hands of the murderer he didn’t catch. My initial entry into the Morton case has to be one in which I start from the assumption it is a justifiable, defensible verdict. From the very earliest stages of my appointment to the Forensic Science Commission, I recognized that there was going to be huge public conflict between what law said the commission should be doing and what some people wanted the commission to do. JB: It’s weird, because the Baker case on its face has nothing to do with this. He had the handlebar mustache that was waxed into a curl. JB: It is huge. “It was an honor to learn while working in his office.”, The workload was crushing. Ensure the attorney is currently licensed to practice in your state; Gain an understanding of his or her historical disciplinary record, if any. I have very honestly and carefully shown them that we learned about the concerns they had literally at the same time they did when that sealed file was unsealed. I acted in plays, wrote essays. Ready for some warm weather, blue waters and scuba diving? Strang Bradley is a small firm of skilled and experienced lawyers devoted to defending people and organizations across Wisconsin. For six years, Bradley also fought the Innocence Project’s efforts to exonerate Michael Morton, who was wrongly convicted of murdering his wife under Bradley’s then boss in Williamson County 25 years ago. He told jurors that Morton brutally beat his wife to death after she refused him sex on the night of his 32nd birthday. JB: That is a public debate that I think is going on right now and took place this week before the U.S. Supreme Court. And ran my mouth in front of people endlessly in tournaments, but it was a great education. I recognized that was going to result in a big public debate, and to some extent I was going to become the poster boy for their agenda. Otherwise, try again or reset your password. And I had no problem in my mind letting facts develop. He is admitted to practice before the courts in Wisconsin. Palau’s Attorney General John Bradley resigns | Pacific | … review of a contract, court appearance, etc. See its history in the Wayback Machine. The attorney general opinion is strikingly similar to the legal arguments I made from the beginning. I sometimes think I need to write an essay about the difference between an office 25 years ago and a modern prosecutors office, dealing cases like the Morton cases. In June, the test results revealed that Christine Morton’s blood was mixed with the hair of a man who was not her husband. And I like storytelling so that was a good part of it. The accidental failure to convey useful information is going to occasionally happen. There was a transcript in which Morton’s mother-in-law told a sheriff’s deputy that the couple’s 3-year-old son saw a “monster” with a big mustache attack his mother — and the monster wasn’t his father. Bradley said he regrets that his opposition to DNA testing over the last six years meant more time behind bars for an innocent man. TT: It sounds like this whole experience has been an epiphany for you. The short answer is in hindsight I regret any delays that I contributed to the exoneration of Michael Morton. All I could see from a distance as I was walking up was it said, ‘John Bradley is a tool.’ I thought, ‘Wow that’s not very creative.’ Then I walked up and in small letters at the bottom it said ‘of Rick Perry.’. “He’s got a long record,” Henson said. I am not in a position to decide those things anymore than any witness would be. John Bradley is a Local Government Law and Criminal Defense lawyer in Georgetown Texas who attended University of Houston Law Center Practice Areas . Although Bradley tried mightily to distance himself from the Morton case—even going so far as to say that he had helped Morton gain his freedom—local voters were not so easily swayed. I still send them money to this day because I can see from this point of view how valuable it was. I’m supposed to come to a conclusion and pursue it, but I’m also supposed to keep an open mind, and frankly probably keep that open mind endlessly. Contact Chief Prosecutor John Bradley for more information at [email protected]. One of the biggest principles I live by is following the rule of law. When he spoke, people listened. JB: In the Willingham case, I could depersonalize it more. If you look at the specific work that I did at the Forensic Science Commission, any resistance that I had to looking at older cases was based upon my reading of the statute. I embrace and support every bit of it. What happened, I can help collect. My conviction integrity unit is every single person that works in my office. My wife deferred finishing her education and she went to work. It goes back to that complexity of a prosecutor’s duty. I think it was very productive and successful, and I’m confident it will result in a longer-term professional relationship. JB: I grew up in Houston and attending Strake Jesuit was a formative experience. Since 1988, Mr. Bradley has focused his practice on intellectual property litigation, entertainment law, new media law, complex litigation, and corporate and business law. If I were him, I would need some time. Providing legal representation in Wisconsin for a variety of different issues, John Bradley was selected to Rising Stars for 2019 - 2020. The long answer is a little more complicated and most of the time doesn’t get discussed or reported. JOHN BRADLEY John Bradley has been a prosecutor since 1987 and thinks there is no profession for lawyers other than criminal law since he graduated from University of Houston Law Center in 1985. For Bradley, the development was a shocking revelation that raised serious questions about his former boss and friend. I was the editor of the newspaper for one year. He certainly had a reputation of his own in the state. His strategic approach and creative and practical solutions assist public and private companies in meeting their business and legal goals in their most significant transactional matters. While the Willingham controversy continued in 2010, the Morton case was beginning to unravel. So, I had to make sure that I kept those personal issues separated from how we resolved the case. I used John Bradley on a personal collection matter and was pleased with John's strategic insights, gameplan, and execution. Under Holmes, he said, they were taught a prosecutor’s first job is to be tough. I think ultimately I was proved correct as to what the law said and what it meant. In a letter to Williamson County Republicans this spring, Perry praised Bradley’s “experience,” “sound judgment,” and “integrity.” The governor added, “You and your family are safer because John Bradley has served so well as your district attorney.”, Williamson County voters seem to have seen things differently. The Texas Tribune covers politics and a range of policy issues that affect all Texans. A supremely confident and legendarily tough Texas prosecutor, Bradley says he is learning some of the most important — and humbling — lessons of his 24-year career. I’ve told him that I would love to do some joint things with him publicly at national conferences or legislatively and I’m confident that we will. In the less than three years I was there, I think I compressed about 10 years of experience. Not as a solution, but let’s see where it goes, and I think that this case, I hope, teaches prosecutors to be more open to what those circumstances can mean. I knew that it was going to be controversial, but I so strongly believe that someone has to speak to the rule of law that I agreed to do it. “And you had to defend yourself, and you have to be the same predator back.”. TT: In Judge Anderson’s book, Crime in Texas, Your Complete Guide to the Criminal Justice System, he discusses a tradition he started of writing letters objecting to the release of a list of “100 worst” criminals from the county. “The jury is still out on whether those words will manifest themselves into real actions to help fix what is clearly a broken justice system,” said state Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, chairman of the Innocence Project. JB: It was very simply the fascinating stories. In the press, he berated the idea that DNA would lead to some “mystery killer.” And he said Morton’s lawyers were “grasping at straws.”. Any jury could reasonably say it’s irrelevant and could still convict. He and Ken Anderson were once the celebrated political kingpins in Williamson County, that is, until the Michael Morton case reduced their local stronghold to rubble. And they note that he is facing re-election next year. It’s certainly more complex than your average slogan. From 1992 until 2000, while Holmes was in office, Harris County sent 111 defendants to death row, according to a 2010 report by Drake University Law School professor David McCord. TT: Talk about working in the DA’s office for Judge Ken Anderson. I hated law school, it was to me the most punitive experience that I’ve ever been through, but you’ve got to get that law degree to practice law. Leave them blank to get signed up. JB: I’ve thought about the probabilities of that, of being in a place where I’m on the edge of the development of forensic science as the result of a governor asking me to be there and quickly on the heels of that getting yet another extraordinary lesson, not so much in forensic science, but in really the other developing story about criminal justice, which is how do prosecutors deal with challenges to cases which they had very strong assumptions of guilt on. During a dispute in 1987 over evidence, the judge had ordered Anderson, the prosecutor, to provide him all of the investigator’s reports so that he could determine whether there was any information that could help Morton prove his innocence. Whoever represented that person, if there are forensic developments that they think could be valued in reinvestigating the case, then I think they have a duty to consider that and pursue it and at least bring it to our attention. Bradley abruptly cancelled the meeting, and the pace of the Willingham investigation slowed dramatically. What all of this means in the end of it is going to be decided by someone else. I wasn’t even a prosecutor when that case took place, so I think I had some more distance from it. That’s about all I can aim for. I don’t want to infer or suggest in any of this any particular conclusion about what all this information is going to mean or result in. That’s the kind of thing your eyebrows go BING! Both Bradley and Morton’s lawyers knew that there were many more pages. Menu & Reservations Make Reservations . TT: How do you do that? So I have to wonder by what incredible series of combined circumstances that comes up at the same time that these cases hit. Eventually, lawmakers intervened, and the Texas Senate declined to confirm Bradley’s appointment to remain on the commission. She’s a Cajun red head. That’s the money moment in the movie. But it’s pretty hard to come up with an alternative explanation for biological material that is at two separate crime scenes that are very similar and is focused on one person. The Innocence Project alleged that Bradley was protecting the governor from potential political fallout during his gubernatorial re-election season. Williamson Country District Attorney John Bradley faced a resounding defeat in a race that became a referendum on his handling of the Michael Morton case. A Tough Prosecutor Finds His Certitude Shaken by a Prisoner's … Again, it goes back to my assumption that the judgment was accurate. What made that complicated was the separate debate that was going on about guilt or innocence of someone who was executed. TT: Is the primary lesson open-mindedness? I’ve talked to a lot people who have seen it. Lawyers can always come up with alternative explanations. Some of Bradley’s critics are skeptical of his self-professed transformation, and they say it can’t atone for the years that his stubbornness allowed Morton to remain wrongly imprisoned. Texas Forensic Science Commission Chairman John Bradley listens to other board members during a scheduled meeting on Sept. 17, 2010, in Dallas. But the next most significant event for me was the birth of our next two children. When Gov. We can correct those. There’s an endless stream of cases and particularly people at the bottom of the food chain get the bigger caseload. TT: Where does that leave you politically? “And it will take more than a few words of humility to get everyone to believe that he’s had some road to Damascus moment.”. It might not look like it used to. It was adopted and it is discussed in that report. JB: I have never had a problem looking at older cases. When Bradley arrived in Williamson County in 1989, Michael Morton had already been in prison for two years. When I asked Bradley why he was fighting so strongly against DNA testing, he said, “It would muddy the waters.” I responded, “Mr. Frankly, most prosecutors finish a case, they plead it or they try it, that file goes in a drawer and you forget it. John Bradley is a corporate and securities attorney. It would be very easy I think for me to get upset, bitter, and just react to all of that stuff but I’ve never really approached things that way. Bradley is responsible for prosecuting felony criminal offenses that are committed in Williamson County. “It was a tremendous culture shock,” he said. In 2009, as chairman of the Texas Forensic Science Commission, he and the New York-based Innocence Project battled aggressively over re-examining the case of Cameron Todd Willingham, the Corsicana man executed in 2004 for igniting the 1991 arson blaze that killed his three daughters. The man whose DNA was on those items during the 1980s lived only blocks away from Baker and about 12 miles away from the Morton’s home. “Your professional relationship is an important part of being a lawyer, something I did not develop in Houston that I’m still working on,” he said. This spring, Mark Landrum, the jury foreman in Morton’s 1987 trial, endorsed Bradley’s Republican primary opponent, county attorney Jana Duty. I’m a witness. It also wanted the commission to require the State Fire Marshal’s Office to review other arson cases to determine whether mistakes were made that resulted in wrongful convictions. Isn’t it fascinating that despite our conflicts on that case, in a case that is equally or maybe even more controversial, we came to terms and dealt with each other more professionally? ). He has served as the District Attorney in Williamson County, Texas since December 2001. Had he known then what he knows now about the Innocence Project and Scheck, he said he might have handled the Willingham case differently, too. “It’s the kind of thing that happens only in Hollywood movies,” Bradley said. And again, the Innocence Project gets credit for identifying that cold case, going to the Travis County DA’s office and asking for them to look at it. The registration number with NYS Office of Court Administration (OCA) is #2835775. TT: You’ve seen the documentary film Incendiary, right? And I chose the latter path.". https://www.texasmonthly.com/politics/why-john-bradley-lost/, Though Morton himself stayed above the fray, his attorney, John Raley, of the Houston firm Raley & Bowick—who worked for six years pro bono on Morton’s behalf—penned a damaging letter that ran in several Central Texas newspapers shortly before the election. And one of the first lessons I learned was that does not work in Williamson County, where there was much more of a relationship with the lawyers. JB: I don’t think I’m in a position to address that. In August, a national DNA database search matched that DNA to a felon with a record in California. That’s a very cutting edge developing part of our understanding of the duty to seek justice. Things were held a lot more closely. I think he would say that he felt like I was open and honest and fair with him. The governor appointed Bradley to lead the Texas Forensic Science Commission just as it embarked on a highly controversial investigation of the Willingham case. “I recognized that I could be angry, resentful and react to people, or I could look for the overall purpose and lesson and apply it to not only my own professional life but teach it. And I think if you talk to him he would repeat that. They, at that time and still have Jesuit priests who teach and teach the Jesuit approach to life, where you're among a community of men, but at the same time they are also every single day making you think very critically. Bradley grew up as a prosecutor in his hometown of Houston under Harris County District Attorney Johnny Holmes, working there from 1987-1989. Scott Henson, who writes the well-regarded criminal justice blog Grits for Breakfast, said Bradley could demonstrate his changed perspective by joining with innocence advocates to promote reforms to the Texas justice system. I feel like I went to college on that, and it was great. “They’re expected to be tough always and hard always,” Brunner said, “and if you deviate off that you better have a damn good reason.”. He worked 70 hours each week in an office where defense lawyers were viewed as hostile enemies. “I always felt like I was swimming among sharks,” he said. Now, ultimately the DNA evidence spoke louder than anything else. And I early on recognized that I could be angry, resentful and react to people, or I could look for the overall purpose and lesson and apply it to not only my own professional life but teach it. They may have been nicer, but that didn’t mean prosecutors weren’t tough. I’m going to give it some time. Professionally I understand it. But oh my gosh, were we poor. I will tell you that I would congratulate Barry Scheck on his patience and his willingness to engage in some meaningful dialog with me to help me get there. And Bradley, try as he may, could not escape it. Then came another, perhaps even bigger bombshell. Below is a condensed transcript of the Tribune’s extended interview Bradley. Strang Bradley, LLC 33 E Main St., Suite 400, Madison, WI 53703 Phone: (608) 535-1550 Fax: (608) 406-2602 And in the future, when defense lawyers bring him cases to review, Bradley said, he will have a new perspective. After being fired, prosecutor runs against former boss, Plymouth … Juries and judges in Williamson County meted out long sentences. JB: I don’t know. I had to begin to alter my personality. Attorney Biography. I love literature. It’s pointless now to try to figure out who’s to blame for that. Judge and former prosecutor Ken Anderson speaks about the wrongful conviction of Michael Morton. I quickly began to hear and see that Williamson County even at that time was a place, to use a typical phrase, that was tough on crime. He described him as a “hands-on” prosecutor who didn’t allow his assistants much discretion in decision-making about their cases. Contingency Fees: The attorneys fee is based on a percentage of amount awarded in judgement or negotiated in the settlement of the case. It is also highly public. ). This experience has taught him to be more open-minded, to try to see cases from both sides, he said. Facts don’t change. It’s the kind of thing that happens only in Hollywood movies. She found that two prosecutors in the case, former Assistant District Attorneys John Bradley and Karen O’Sullivan, exchanged emails about the defendant, her family, and “all Asian-Americans.” These messages were described as “racially and sexually degrading,” and displaying “anti-Asian bias.” "Mr. Bradley denies making any comments that either determined and/or implied any wrongdoing on behalf of the prosecutor’s office," the statement reads. I would say I have been through a series of events that deeply challenged me to evolve as a prosecutor. In 2009, when he helmed the Texas Forensic Science Commission’s aborted inquiry into the controversial case of Cameron Todd Willingham, he famously scuttled questions about whether or not Texas had executed an innocent man. The style in which information was conveyed was much more controlled by the prosecutor. He had worked his way up through that DA’s office. ... We were talking about evolution of my mind and it’s openness. And had a very, very good college experience. I think the ultimate lesson is to spend more time trying to see the case from the other person’s point of view and not demonize that individual or their argument. With his handlebar mustache waxed into perfect curls above his lip, Holmes was the iconic Texas prosecutor. She started there my junior year. JB: I have not. The commission was set to hear a report from nationally-recognized fire scientist Craig Beyler that raised questions about whether Texas had executed an innocent man. TT: The way that movie portrays the relationship between you and the Innocence Project is very hostile. While DNA will tell you something biologically, the inferences that you draw from it are not automatic and they’re not always automatic. ... TT: How has all of this affected what you think about the Willingham case and the Forensic Science Commission and looking at older cases? The prosecutor does not have that same standard. Christine and Michael Morton on their wedding day, April 7, 1979. They want more than words. I didn’t know about Williamson County, so I applied and got the job.