On October 28, 2009, Travis County, Texas, pros­e­cu­tors moved to dis­miss all charges against Michael Scott and Robert Springsteen, who had been con­vict­ed of the mur­der of four teens in an Austin yogurt shop in 1991. (Springsteen was con­vict­ed in 2001; Scott in 2002.) Springsteen had been sen­tenced to death and Scott was sen­tenced to life in prison. The con­vic­tions of both men were over­turned by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals because they had not been ade­quate­ly allowed to cross exam­ine each oth­er. (See Springsteen v. Texas, No. AP-74,223 (May 24, 2006)). State District Judge Mike Lynch had released the defen­dants on bond in June, pend­ing a pos­si­ble retri­al by the state. However, sophis­ti­cat­ed DNA analy­sis of evi­dence from the crime scene did not match either defen­dant and the pros­e­cu­tion announced it was not pre­pared to go to tri­al. The judge accept­ed the state’s motion to dis­miss all charges. Prosecutors are still try­ing to match the DNA from crime with a new defendant.

“This has been a long time com­ing,” said Scott, once charges were dropped, ​“and I’m hap­py to be here.” Both Scott and Springsteen impli­cat­ed them­selves at the time of their arrest, 8 years after the crime. However, both claimed that their state­ments had been coerced by police. The police inves­ti­ga­tion had been com­pro­mised from the start because the build­ing had been set on fire, and thou­sands of gal­lons of water were poured on the crime scene before an inves­ti­ga­tion was car­ried out. Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg issued a state­ment that said in part: ​“Make no mis­take, this is a dif­fi­cult deci­sion and one I would rather not have to make.”

(S. Kreytak, ​“Charges dis­missed in yogurt shop case,” Austin American-Statesman, October 28, 2009; see also J. Vertuno, ​“Murder counts tossed in Texas yogurt shop slay­ings,” Associated Press, Oct. 29, 2009). See also Innocence. Robert Springsteen is the 139th per­son to be exon­er­at­ed and freed from death row since 1973, accord­ing to the Death Penalty Information Center’s com­pi­la­tion of such cas­es. The cri­te­ria for inclu­sion on this list are:

Defendants must have been con­vict­ed, sen­tenced to death and subsequently either-
a) their con­vic­tion was over­turned AND
i) they were acquit­ted at re-tri­al or
ii) all charges were dropped
b) they were giv­en an absolute par­don by the gov­er­nor based on new evi­dence of innocence. 

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