We all took the week from Christmas to New Years off. I’m not certain I’m refreshed — 2012 was a very tough year — but I did get a bunch of things done around the house. One thing I got to do was a lot of long form reading. I’d been saving a few articles for the end of the year. I read a lot. It’s one of my favorite things to do, actually, and consider it my primary hobby.

Probably the best article I read the entire week was about a man who was accused of killing his wife and sent to prison. There was lots of evidence at the time pointing away from him but those leads weren’t followed and the DA, aggressively pursuing higher office, railroaded him. Michael Morton spent 25 years in jail, finally freed thanks to The Innocence Project and advances in DNA technologies. The article from Texas Monthly called The Innocent Man is long — it’s split into two parts — but so amazingly compelling I couldn’t put it down. Fantastic writing, incredible story, and, luckily, justice in the end.