60 Minutes interviews Michael Morton

"It's not every day that a convicted murderer clears his name and then returns to court to argue that his prosecutor should be prosecuted," correspondent Lara Logan said at the opening of 60 Minutes' segment last night featuring Michael Morton's first media interview since his exoneration. See the clip (there's a ad at the beginning of each):


And here's an additional online discussion from the 60 Minutes reporter and producers:


The account of Morton's relationship with his son is one of the most heartbreaking you'll ever encounter, like some epic, tragic Russia novel with a surprise, wholly Americanized happy ending - like a "present from heaven," as Morton himself put it. Morton's is an amazing tale. Once again, congrats to him and everyone involved over the years in fighting the Williamson County DA's office to free him.

RELATED: Reacting to the story, Wilco Watchdog says that "Ken Anderson put Morton in prison and John Bradley kept him there." Bradley wasn't mentioned in the 60 Minutes piece, but there's little doubt the issue looms large over his re-election campaign, for the reasons articulated by the Watchdog, and this national press coverage won't help matters. In a sense, it may benefit Bradley that the redistricting battle forced the state to push back its primaries, or Williamson County voters would be going to the polls next week with the 60 Minutes story fresh in their minds. OTOH, it's also possible the longer timeline will give Bradley's opponent a chance to make the associations among voters between Bradley and the Morton case that 60 Minutes left out. We won't know until May how this may impact the Williamson DA's race, but the incumbent must be worried.

ALSO: In the second clip embedded above, the producer said they interviewed Michael Morton for nearly three hours in preparation for this story, with just a few minutes broadcast during this segment. This was Morton's first media interview since his release last fall, so I hope CBS goes ahead and puts more of the extended interview online. That's historic material.

AND MORE: Texas Monthly's Paul Burka has a bloggerly assessment of the Williamson County DA's race in the wake of 60 Minutes' coverage.