Santiago Ventura Morales

Santiago Ventura Morales (born 1968) is a Mexican social worker in the state of Oregon. Born in Mexico, he was falsely convicted of murder in Oregon in 1986. The conviction drew national attention when some jurors worked to overturn the conviction, and he was released from prison in 1991. He later graduated from the University of Portland.

Early life Santiago Ventura Morales was born in 1968 and grew up in San Miguel Cuevas in the Mexican state of Oaxaca where he completed school through the sixth grade. An indigenous Mexican of Mixtec heritage, he moved to the United States to work as a migrant farm worker. However, the lack of an appropriate interpreter and other deficiencies in his trial led to his conviction being overturned when it was shown that a different person was responsible for the murder.

While in prison he learned English and hoped to become a lawyer. The reinvestigation drew intense media attention locally and nationally. Paul De Muniz, who became Oregon Supreme Court Chief Justice in 2001 and retired in 2013, was Morales’ primary defense attorney on the successful appeal. In 1995, the state of Oregon passed a law that requires testing and certification of court interpreters as a result of the Morales case.

Aftermath After his release, but while waiting for the charges to be dropped, he enrolled at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon. He graduated in May 1996 from the school with a bachelor's degree in social work and a minor in political science.