Danny Puff

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) Handcuffed and being bundled into a police car after his conviction for killing his wife, Michael Morton called out to a nearby cluster of reporters.

"I didn't do this," the Texan cried, his dazed voice filled more with confusion than anger or heartbreak. "I did not do this."

Nobody believed him.

In "An Unreal Dream: The Michael Morton Story," writer/director and two-time Oscar nominee Al Reinert offers an unflinching look at how Morton was wrongfully convicted of murder and had his only son disown him as he served a life sentence. It lays bare how the Austin grocery store inventory manager lost everything except the fact that he was innocent but was finally exonerated in 2011 by new DNA evidence after nearly a quarter century behind bars.

On Monday, another man, Mark Norwood, goes on trial for the murder of Morton's wife Christine, who was beaten to death in her bed in August 1986. Norwood has also been linked to a similar 1988 slaying of another woman, Debra Masters Baker, sparking speculation that authorities allowed him to kill again while wrongfully focusing on Morton.

The district attorney who helped send Morton to prison, Ken Anderson, has been accused of withholding evidence that could have helped the defense. Anderson is now a state district judge and faced a court of inquiry, a proceeding held to examine alleged wrongdoing by court officials. A decision in that matter may come next month.

Asked about Anderson following a screening of "An Unreal Dream" at the South By Southwest film festival this week, Morton said it's "not a personal, visceral hatred I have for him."

"I had to literally let that go. I've had a lot of time to do that," Morton said. "But, at the same time, there needs to be accountability."

Two jurors from Morton's trial appear in the movie and say they were struck by the defendant's lack of emotion, in contrast to Anderson's commanding courtroom presence.

The state alleged that Morton flew into a rage and killed Christine because she fell asleep without having sex with him on his 32nd birthday. Tears ran down the district attorney's face as he claimed Morton masturbated over his wife's body.

Morton explained after the movie that he was putting on a brave face in court for his son Eric, who was 3 when his mother was killed. He said he was also grieving his wife and worrying about possibly losing his job and his home which didn't leave him with much emotion left to display for the jury.

But Morton, now 58, remains unassuming even today, often appearing surprised that his story has garnered so much attention.

"There's a part of me that has worried he'd turn into some kind of celebrity and he hasn't done that," said Reinert, the writer/director. "He hasn't become egotistical, he hasn't become mean-spirited, he hasn't become selfish. He's remained incredibly level-headed."

The movie is screening for a third and final time Saturday in Austin, but is being shopped for eventual wider release nationally.

Morton said he wanted it to focus on his wife's life, flaws in the legal system and his experience being touched by God in prison.

Morton's religious experience came in 2001, amid his darkest days. That's when his son wrote to say he was being formally adopted by his aunt and uncle on his mom's side and changing his last name.

"When I lost him," a choked-up Morton says in the documentary, "that's what broke me."

The movie details how Houston attorney John Raley and the New York-based Innocence Project spent years fighting for DNA testing on a bloody bandanna discovered near the Morton home shortly after Christine's slaying. John Bradley, an Anderson protege who was then district attorney, argued it would "muddy the waters."

In 2010, Morton had a chance to be paroled but would have had to admit remorse for a crime he didn't commit. "All I had left," he says in the movie, "is my actual innocence."

When DNA testing finally confirmed the truth, Bradley sent an email to Eric Morton saying his father was likely to be released. "I was almost rude in my response," Eric Morton recalls into the camera. "There was no room in my life for this."

But since then, he and his father have slowly begun to reconcile. Christine Morton's family, however, does not appear in the documentary.

"They spent 25 years hating this man and they just can't turn it around that quick," Reinert said.

Morton, who got remarried last weekend, has become an advocate for reforming the Texas legal system to better guard against wrongful convictions. He visited the floor of the state Senate this week and received an apology from Sen. John Whitmire, who heads the chamber's Criminal Justice Committee.

Morton said his efforts at legal reform are more rewarding than proving his innocence because, as he notes in the documentary, "Vindication was very, very good. But it was something I knew all along."

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NEW YORK (AP) Health concerns are forcing Morrissey to cancel his North American tour.

In a statement released Friday night, his rep says the singer has to take a break after suffering a series of maladies, including double pneumonia, a bleeding ulcer and a gastrointestinal problem called Barrett's esophagus.

Fans can get refunds where they purchased their tickets. Morrissey thanked fans for their well wishes.

Morrissey had to cancel performances earlier this month because of his pneumonia.

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By Sarah McBride

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalist has stepped into the middle of a long-standing controversy over a California tradition: open access to the state's famed beaches.

In a lawsuit filed this week, the Surfrider Foundation, a coastal protection group, alleges that the owner of a beachfront property south of San Francisco has violated the law by closing an access road that has long been used by local surfers and fisherman to reach a spit of sand called Martin's Beach.

"It's the most beautiful beach in San Mateo County," said Mark Massara, a lawyer for Surfrider. Massara says he surfs often at the beach and believes the law provides for access to everyone.

While documents list the owner of the property as Martin's Beach LLC, a person familiar with the matter says the owner is Vinod Khosla, a co-founder of Sun Microsystems and a prominent venture capitalist known for investing in clean-energy technology.

In California, unlike in most other states, all beaches are open to the public under the constitution. But private landowners are not always required to allow access to the coastline across their property, and many disputes have arisen over the years - often involving wealthy beachfront homeowners.

In the case of the Martin's Beach property, the previous owner had long allowed locals to access the beach for a fee. But the new owner, who bought the property in 2008 and soon after installed gates on the access road and hired guards to keep people out - infuriating locals, who staged a protest at the property on Thursday.

Lawyers for Surfrider say California's Coastal Act calls for permits around activities that change the use or intensity of use at a beach - permits Martin's Beach LLC failed to acquire before installing the gates.

Joan Gallo, a lawyer for Martin's Beach LLC, did not respond to phone messages. A spokeswoman for Khosla did not respond to requests for comment.

HEIRESSES, EXECUTIVES AND MOGULS

The dispute echoes record mogul David Geffen's long battle to prevent use of a walkway near his Malibu home. In 1983, Geffen agreed to allow a pathway to Carbon Beach when he sought permits for a pool and other additions, but he later filed suit to fight the access. In 2005, Geffen settled the suit and allowed the public walkway.

More recently, heiress Lisette Ackerberg has been fighting an easement on her Carbon Beach property, where she has built a tennis court and a generator that block the easement. She is appealing a 2011 order from a California Superior Court judge that require her to clear the right of way.

The tiff also evokes some other neighbourly disputes in recent years involving wealthy technology executives including late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, Lotus founder Mitch Kapor, Lucasfilm founder George Lucas and Oracle founder Larry Ellison.

Jobs fought a bitter battle with neighbours in Woodside, California, over a 1920s-era house he owned but wanted to tear down and replace with something more sleek. He twice won demolition permits that were contested by preservationists; the wrecking ball finally came to the house in 2011, months before his death. The property is now vacant.

Also that year, Ellison settled a case he had filed against his neighbours over trees he said blocked the bay views from his house in San Francisco's Pacific Heights neighbourhood.

Last year, special-effects pioneer Lucas, the creator of "Star Wars," got so fed up with his development-fighting neighbours in Marin County, California, that he scrapped plans to expand his Skywalker Ranch and said he would instead sell it to a developer to build low-income housing.

And this year, the California Supreme Court is reviewing a case that pits software mogul Kapor against his neighbours in the hills of Berkeley, California, where he hopes to build a 10,000-square-foot house.

In the latest conflict, Martin's Beach LLC lawyer Joan Gallo told the San Francisco Chronicle earlier this week that she welcomed the case. "All we've wanted from the very beginning was an opportunity to have a court decide the rights and obligations of the parties."

Khosla made his name as a co-founder of Sun Microsystems and later joined the blue-chip venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. He started Khosla Ventures in 2004, and the firm known for investing in clean-technology companies such as renewable energy company KiOR and renewable-products company Amyris.

In 2011, Khosla committed half his fortune to charity as part of the Giving Pledge, an initiative started by Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Berkshire Hathaway chief Warren Buffett.

But he is somewhat of a maverick who has complained about environmentalists. Last year at the Berkeley-Stanford Cleantech Conference, he said clean technology has been hurt by environmentalists more than any other group, because environmentalists back idealized solutions that "don't make any economic sense."

The lawsuit in Superior Court of California, San Mateo County, is Surfrider Foundation v. Martins Beach 1, LLC, case number 520336.

(Reporting By Sarah McBride; Editing by Jonathan Weber and Douglas Royalty)

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NEW YORK (AP) A musical based on the woman behind such pop standards as "It's Too Late," ''You've Got a Friend" and "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" hopes to make it to Broadway.

Producers on Friday announced plans to take "Beautiful: The Carole King Musical" to the Great White Way by spring 2014. The story is written by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Douglas McGrath.

King composed dozens of 1960s hits with then-husband Gerry Goffin before emerging as a recording artist in her own right. Her 25 million-selling "Tapestry" launched the singer-songwriter era in 1971 and became the first real blockbuster album.

The musical will chart King's rise set to the music that made her an icon.

Many of her songs became known through others, like "Pleasant Valley Sunday" (the Monkees), "Crying in the Rain" (Everly Brothers), "Take Good Care of My Baby" (Bobby Vee) and "You've Got a Friend" (James Taylor).

King's pre-"Tapestry" hits also included "Up on the Roof" (Drifters), "Loco-Motion" (Little Eva), "Will You Love Me Tomorrow (Shirelles), "One Fine Day" (Chiffons) and "Chains" (Cookies, later covered by the Beatles).

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LAS VEGAS (AP) The sign may read "For Sale" outside the sprawling southeast Las Vegas estate that Wayne Newton dubbed "Casa de Shenandoah."

But Newton's wife, Kathleen McCrone Newton, said Friday that even if a bidder snatches up the property at auction May 31, the "Mr. Las Vegas" crooner and his family have no intention of moving out.

"We stay here until we choose to leave. We have that right," Kathleen Newton told The Associated Press. "Even if at some point the property gets sold, it gets sold with us here."

She said a lease with a partnership that purchased the nearly 40-acre property for $19.5 million in June 2010 will let the couple and their 10-year-old daughter stay in the gold-trimmed opulent main house.

The mansion, featuring 17th century antiques and keepsakes from performers like Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and Bobby Darin, was to have been the featured attraction in a "Graceland West" attraction commemorating the career of the 70-year-old "Mr. Las Vegas" crooner. But those plans have crumbled.

Kathleen Newton's sister, Tricia McCrone, lives in another home on the property. Newton's 92-year-old former longtime personal secretary, Mona Matoba, lives in a third.

An exotic menagerie including Newton's penguins, swans and Arabian horses also stay, Kathleen Newton said.

Well, maybe not, said Joseph Wielebinski, a Dallas-based lawyer representing the property owner, CSD LLC, in a bitterly contested Chapter 11 reorganization.

"We have teed up that issue for resolution by the judge," Wielebinski said. "It is anything but certain whether the Newtons remain on the property or not."

The Newtons don't own the Casa de Shenandoah property anymore, Wielebinski said.

While Newton certainly owns his famous Arabian horses, he doesn't own the irrigated green pastures where they graze. The court will have to decide if he owns the barns where they're kept. And leases can be broken during bankruptcy reorganization.

"This is a business divorce. Everything is contested," Wielebinski said.

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Bruce Markell in Las Vegas is poised during hearings March 29 and April 8 to rule on questions about who owns what.

The judge last month approved letting CSD sell animals including two sloths, several wallabies and more than 100 birds including swans, a crowned crane, macaws and love birds for $27,300 to a wildlife center in northern Oregon.

Kellie Caron, curator at the Zoological Wildlife Conservation Center in Rainier, Ore., didn't list penguins among the animals she said she expects to be taking in. She said the animals involved in the sale belonged to CSD, not the Newtons.

The breakup is complicated by the structure of the June 2010 land purchase deal around which the Wayne Newton tourism attraction would have been built.

Wayne and Kathleen Newton, through a business entity called Sacred Land LLC, own 20 percent of their bankrupt landlord, CSC LLC. Lacy and Dorothy Harber of Texas, through DLH LLC, own 70 percent of the property ownership entity. CSD Management LLC, made up of project manager Steven Kennedy and his partner, Geneva Clark, have a 10 percent stake.

There is also intense acrimony between the parties. The two sides traded allegations of fraud, mismanagement, animal abuse and sexual harassment even before the case reached bankruptcy court. Newton lawyer J. Stephen Peek alleged during a breach of contract hearing last summer in state court there had been death threats.

One thing that Newton attorney Bryce Kunimoto and Charles McCrea Jr., an attorney representing the Harbers, agreed upon Friday was that nothing was certain.

"Though CSD will probably disagree, the Newtons have a right under the lease to remain on the property," Kunimoto said.

McCrea said the Newtons may be able to remain in the three houses if they want.

"But they will not have control over the entire 'Casa de Shenandoah' property, only that portion occupied by the houses," he said. "The Newtons may decide they don't want to stay in the houses because they will have little say on what may be developed around them."

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ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss police have arrested a self-styled healer after he stopped attending a trial where he stands accused of infecting 16 people with HIV using acupuncture needles.

Swiss police said on Friday that they stormed the home of the 54-year-old man, who had barricaded himself inside, was armed with a knife and had issued repeated threats. An unidentified woman with him was also arrested.

The man had been free on bail since August. His trial began on March 6, but he stopped turning up in court on Thursday.

The case came to the attention of the Swiss authorities after an HIV-positive patient told a Berne hospital he had traced his infection back to acupuncture treatments carried out by the accused. The man has denied the charges.

According to Swiss media, the majority of the infected individuals were students of a music school run by the man, who also ran an acupuncture practice.

In accordance with Swiss criminal proceedings, the suspect's identity has not been released.

(Reporting By Katharina Bart; Editing by Emma Farge and Paul Casciato)

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VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Less than 48 hours after his surprise election, Pope Francis's smiling face adorns pendants and devotional souvenir cards packaged with rosaries at the trinket stands near St. Peter's Square.

Small plastic bags containing a picture of Francis and a rosary - a string of prayer beads - were selling for 7 euros (5.96 pounds) at Antonio Cardone's stand and postcards showing the new pontiff were selling briskly at 50 cents.

"We expect more stuff to arrive in the coming days," said Cardone. "Especially when he's officially installed on Tuesday."

Another stallholder, Stefano Di Segni, said his suppliers were scrambling to meet demand now that uncertainty had ended over who would succeed after the abdication of Benedict XVI.

Nearby, outside a Vatican City bookshop, tourists were swarming around posters with the face of the new pope on one side and excerpts from his first address on the other. Inside, they were buying Pope Francis pendants and holy cards.

Di Segni said the most popular item on his stall was still a rosary set with an image of Pope John Paul II, who died in 2005.

But he said Francis, the former Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina, had the potential to become as revered as his much-loved Polish predecessor, who reigned for 27 years.

"I think he's going to be a good pope," said Di Segni, who has run trinket stands around the Vatican for 30 years.

"He was very emotional when he spoke for the first time, so different from Benedict, who was more cold and reserved."

(Reporting By Catherine Hornby; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)

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LOS ANGELES (AP) "A little awkward" is how Selena Gomez describes her transition from Disney girl to Disney girl gone wild in the new R-rated independent film "Spring Breakers," in which she plays a bikini-clad and heavily armed college student bent on a good time with three friends and some drugs, sex and violence.

"I am getting a little bit older, so I wanted to push myself and kind of get into a little bit more of an indie world. And it was a really great experience for me. And at the same time it has been, of course, a little awkward, but great," the 20-year-old Gomez said Thursday at the film's Hollywood premiere.

Known for her role on Disney's "Wizards of Waverly Place," Gomez actually began moving to a faster track as Justin Bieber's now ex-girlfriend. "Honestly, it's been a weird transition. You never really know what's right or wrong and you can only do the best you can," she said.

Directed by art-house favorite Harmony Korine and also starring James Franco and Vanessa Hudgens of Disney's "High School Musical" fame, "Spring Breakers" follows four young women on a Florida coast vacation romp they financed with a diner robbery.

Some of Gomez's young fans were gathered outside the ArcLight Theatre hoping to catch a glimpse of the star. But she warned them not to go inside.

"I think they're really here to see me. I don't think they're here to see the movie," she said. "This was a little bit different. So yes, they shouldn't go see this."

Gomez is also getting attention these days for her own recent reactions to her split with Bieber. A breakup song from her new album called "Rule The World" just leaked on the Internet. "Our love was made to rule the world. You came and broke the perfect girl," she sings.

Commenting on the song, Gomez would only say, "That's not my first single. But it was a song I recorded. But you'll get to know my album a little bit soon sooner than later."

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Rapper Lil Wayne was reported to be in critical condition and in a medically induced coma in a Los Angeles hospital on Friday after suffering seizures, according to celebrity website TMZ.

TMZ.com, citing unnamed sources, said Lil Wayne, 30, whose real name is Dwayne Michael Carter Jr., was in intensive care after suffering multiple seizures earlier this week.

Wayne's representatives did not return calls for comment.

TMZ said the rapper, 30, was admitted to Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles and was released on Wednesday, but readmitted a few hours later after his bodyguard found him unconscious on the floor of his room.

Lil Wayne, a native of New Orleans, began rapping at the age of nine, when he became the youngest artist to be signed by Cash Money record label.

The "Got Money" rapper has released nine studio albums over a two decade career and has become one of the biggest names in rap music.

(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy, editing by Jill Serjeant and David Brunnstrom)

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MONTCLAIR, New Jersey (Reuters) - Federal authorities shut down a New Jersey bakery after finding sugar in its "sugar free" goods and saturated fat in its "fat free" treats, the Food and Drug Administration said on Friday.

Butterfly Bakery Inc., in Clifton, which advertised its products as "Made with 100% Love," was shuttered on Wednesday after a federal judge approved a permanent injunction against it.

The bakery was accused of unlawfully misbranding products as "sugar free" and "fat free" when they had as much as three times the amount of declared sugar and two times the amount of declared saturated fat, according to an FDA statement.

"They have had repeated violations," FDA spokeswoman Tamara Ward told Reuters on Friday. "This is when we take action."

Butterfly Bakery on its Facebook page said it had been under FDA scrutiny for nearly two years to correct the problem. It said three of its 45 items were cited for problems.

The bakery was not immediately available for comment.

(Reporting by Linda Federico-O'Murchu; Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Leslie Adler)

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