A Tennessee man, who was wrongfully convicted, has finally been released from prison after serving an unjust 30-year sentence.
The Innocence Project has reported that the charges against Scott Minton, relating to an aggravated rape, kidnapping, and robbery case from 1993 in Cleveland, TN, have been dismissed by the District Attorney’s office for the Tenth Judicial District in Tennessee.
The woman successfully reached out to her neighbors for assistance, who promptly contacted the police. According to the Innocence Project, she identified one of the suspects, Shannon Blaylock, as a former foster-care child whom she had previously cared for. The authorities located Blaylock, and to their surprise, they discovered Minton alongside him, helping him with his car.
The victim positively identified Minton as the suspect in a live lineup just two days after the attack, leading to his subsequent arrest.
According to the Innocence Project, Minton was coerced into providing another false confession. The police employed psychologically manipulative methods, including lying to him and persuading him to sign a waiver of his rights, despite his functional illiteracy.
During the trial, Minton provided testimony regarding the harsh conditions of his confinement, detailing the intense interrogation that coerced him into confessing to a crime he was innocent of. Consequently, the jury of Bradley County found him guilty and subsequently sentenced him to a staggering 46 years in prison.
The Innocence Project revealed that Minton had been wrongly convicted, despite having 18 alibi witnesses and time-stamped receipts from various stores that placed him in a different county during the crime. Surprisingly, there was no physical evidence linking Minton to the crime, and even the victim’s family stood by him in his quest for freedom.
On December 10, 2024, a Hamilton County judge vacated Minton’s conviction following an evidentiary hearing. During the hearing, expert testimony was presented, highlighting the flaws in eyewitness identifications and false confessions. The judge acknowledged that advancements in research had emerged since Minton’s trial, constituting new scientific evidence, as noted by the Innocence Project.
“This has been a long, emotionally grueling fight for Mr. Minton, who had 30 years of his life stolen,” Innocence Project Senior Staff Attorney Adnan Sultan said in a press release. “Law enforcement’s tunnel vision led them to pressure a vulnerable man into confessing to a crime he could not have done – a fact corroborated by a staggering 18 alibi witnesses. We are thrilled Mr. Minton is finally free, but he should have never been convicted in the first place.”