John Raley

Michael Morton case

Michael Morton was a Texas man that was wrongfully convicted in 1987 in Williamson County, Texas for his wife's murder in 1986. Morton insisted that he was innocent while being sent to prison, claiming "I did not do this".

After a request from co-founder of the Innocence Project, Barry Scheck, John Raley took over the case pro bono along with Nina Morrison of the Innocence Project. In February 2005, Morrison and Raley filed a motion for the DNA testing of Morton. For 6 years, Morrison and Raley fought in state and federal courts until they finally were granted a court order to have a bloody bandana tested.

In June 2011, Michael Morton was released from prison and an inquiry into the district attorney's handling of the case was opened by Raley.

Hannah Overton case Andrew Burd, son of Hannah Overton, died in their Corpus Christi home in 2006 after ingesting a lethal amount of sodium. Hannah Overton was subsequently charged and convicted of the capital murder of Andrew. While the prosecutors alleged abuse of the child due to bruises discovered on his body and a motive of having too many children to take care of (Hannah was pregnant and would have 5 children including Andrew and the pregnancy.) While the jury did not believe the prosecution's theory of the case, they convicted on the basis of Overton not taking her child to emergency care in a timely manner.

As it turned out, multiple witnesses were not able to testify on Overton's behalf due to the defense counsel's oversight. One doctor had testified on videotape that an overdose of sodium can cause a child to easily bruise. Another that was not allowed to speak at trial had worked with Andrew before, and had knowledge that he was developmentally challenged and would eat "weird things". In 2017, Raley was given the Clarence Darrow award by the Harris County Democratic Lawyers association, also for his work on the Morton case.

For his then ongoing work on the Hannah Overton case and success in the Morton case, Raley keynoted the 6th annual Atticus Finch Day One of the co-founders remarked that Raley was a "Real-life Atticus Finch" on the occasion.