A state appeals court has overturned a second conviction stemming from Austin's notorious 1991 "Yogurt Shop Murders."
A divided Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled Wednesday that Michael Scott got an unfair capital murder trial in Travis County. That's because his attorneys weren't allowed to cross-examine co-defendant Robert Springsteen IV. Springsteen had given police a statement incriminating Scott. (Read the opinion here.)
Today's ruling leaves Travis County prosecutors with no convictions from the 1991 slayings of four teenage girls in one of Austin's most notorious crimes.
The court had the same margin when it overturned Springsteen's capital murder conviction last year. Springsteen was sent to death row 2001. But his sentence was commuted to life in prison after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that executing juvenile killers is unconstitutional. Springsteen was 17 at the time of the slayings.
Scott was convicted in a separate trial and sentenced to life in prison.
Killed in the robbery of the I Can't Believe It's Yogurt store were 17-year-old Eliza Hope Thomas, 13-year-old Amy Ayers, and sisters Jennifer and Sarah Harbison, ages 17 and 15. The store was then set on fire.
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