Man framed by cops served 30 years for rape, robbery despite evidence, TN attorneys say

Police coerced a false confession from a man accused of a violent crime despite his time-stamped alibi, and he went to prison for three decades, attorneys in Tennessee said.

Now, Scott Minton is walking free after his wrongful conviction was overturned, the Innocence Project announced Jan. 23.

“I have always said I am innocent, and today my story has finally been heard,” Minton said in a news release.

The 1993 home invasion

In October 1993, a woman told police that her former foster care son called and asked if she would be going to church the next day, according to court documents. She said yes at the time, but didn’t go because she felt sick, she said.

While her husband and parents were at church, her former foster care son, another man and a woman broke into her home in the Chattanooga area, burned her with a cigarette, sexually assaulted her at gunpoint and robbed her, according to court documents.

During the assault, the gun discharged and shot the woman in the leg, and the three assailants ran off, she told police.

The woman reported her foster care son was involved, and law enforcement found him with Minton working on a car, attorneys said. Police zeroed in on Minton by association and arrested him.

The victim didn’t identify Minton from a lineup the first time, Minton’s defense said. But she did the second time, and attorneys argued this was the result of “exposure effect,” making the woman more likely to identify him the second time around.

“Statistical analysis of identifications shows that suspects who are not identified at the first opportunity typically had no involvement in the crime,” according to the Innocence Project. “Further, her initial description of the assailant did not match Mr. Minton.”

Minton had a receipt from that day showing he was shopping for a car part in another county at the time, as well as more than a dozen witnesses corroborating his alibi, according to his legal team.

But his attorneys said police developed “tunnel vision” and became convinced Minton was the perpetrator despite evidence to the contrary.

He was interrogated until he confessed, and his attorneys said that he had an intellectual disability and anxiety, which made him more susceptible to making a false confession under duress.

“Mr. Minton was questioned three times over three days, and isolated in a cell with no water or cellmates, greatly adding to the situational risk of a false confession,” his attorneys said.

A jury convicted him on all charges and he was sentenced to 46 years behind bars.

Exoneration

Minton isn’t the only one who contested the facts of the trial. The accused female assailant appealed her conviction and the victim’s credibility was questioned. Appeal documents show her ex-husband testified she had faked kidnappings and burglaries in the past.

Ultimately, the court found the facts in the 1993 incident were different from past instances, but the accused female assailant’s conviction of especially aggravated battery was downgraded to a lesser charge.

The Innocence Project of Tennessee took on Minton’s case, and a judge vacated his conviction after a Dec. 10 hearing in which experts contested the legitimacy of Minton’s confession and the woman’s identification of him.

Minton thanked his family for standing by him all those years.

“I am excited to finally move forward with my life as a free man,” he said. “Since being released, I’ve been spending my time outdoors, taking in fresh air, watching wildlife and enjoying sunsets.”