Yogurt Shop murder conviction overturned

It's one of the most controversial confession cases on the books.  Four young men were charged with murdering four teenage girls in December 1991 who worked at the Austin TX "I Can't Believe It's Yogurt Shop."  The four men were Maurice Pierce (believed by police to be the ringleader), Forrest Wellborn (belived to be the driver), Robert Springsteen IV and Michael Scott.    The investigation was at a standstill in 1999 when members of a cold case squad interviewed Springsteen and Scott and after hours of intense and highly coercive interrogations obtained confessions from the two which also named Pierce and Wellborn.

(The infamous photo above shows Austin detective Robert Merrill holding a gun to the back of the head of Michael Scott during the interrogation).  Prosecutors could not get an indictment against Wellborn and charges against Pierce were dropped but both Scott and Springsteen were convicted.  Springsteen was sentenced to death (although he is no longer eligible for the death penalty b/c he was 17 at the time of the crime.)  Not a shred of physical or forensic evidence linked any of the boys to the crime, in part, because the killers, who are also believed to have sexually assaulted the girls, torched the place when leaving.  The confessions were also replete with errors and much of the correct information in the confessions was already known to police. 

Now, after one of the longest delays in TX appellate court history, the TX Court of Criminal Appeals, in a sharply divided opinion has reversed the conviction of Robert Springsteen.  the basis -- prosecutors introduced portions of Scott's confession at Springsteen's trial without giving Springsteen the chance to cross-examine Scott, a practice now outlawed by the United States Supreme Court in Crawford v. Washington.  Prosecutors used the same tactic in Scott's case, suggesting that his conviction will likely be reversed as well.

To read the complete ruling -- which will allow prosecutors to use Springsteen's confession on retrial because the court found it was "voluntary" -- see
http://www.cca.courts.state.tx.us/opinions/HTMLOpinionInfo.asp?OpinionID=14031

For background on the case: http://www.news8austin.com/content/special_coverage/yogurt_shop_murders/
Excellent coverage of the case can also be found in the Austin Chronicle: http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2002-08-23/pols_feature3.html