AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Wednesday, August 06, 2008

The daughter of a 1980 murder victim and a Georgetown man convicted of a 1986 murder, with help from the Innocence Project in New York, asked a federal court Tuesday to force Williamson County to release evidence from both crimes for DNA testing.

Pat Stapleton, 75 and still haunted by the discovery of her mother's battered body, says she hopes the results point to Mildred McKinney's killer.

Michael Morton hopes the tests will help overturn his life sentence in the death of his wife, Christine.

Both women were beaten to death in the ransacked bedrooms of their Georgetown homes, which were about a half-mile apart. Both were attacked so severely in their beds that blood splattered nearby walls. And both bodies were covered by household items — McKinney by a reclining chair, small table and vacuum cleaner, and Morton by a suitcase, bedding and a wicker basket.

"I'd like to know that whoever is responsible is in prison or has been executed, and that all this can end," said Stapleton, who lives in Georgetown. She still chokes up when she talks about her mom, who she describes as a loving, even-tempered woman who was a spry 73 when she was raped and killed.

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