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Attorneys argue evidence proves innocence of yogurt shop defendants 
06:36 PM CST on Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Attorneys for yogurt shop murder defendants Michael Scott and Robert Springsteen say they have new evidence and new attorneys to prove their clients innocence.
The defense worked together Wednesday afternoon, laying out several motions before Judge Mike Lynch.
One of Springsteen's attorneys, Alexandra Gauthier, told Judge Lynch that there is newly discovered DNA evidence proving Springsteen, Scott and two previous defendants, Maurice Pierce and Forrest Welborn, didn't kill four teenage girls at a yogurt shop in 1991. Amy Ayers, 13, Eliza Thomas, 17, and sisters Jennifer and Sarah Harbison, 17 and 15 were tied up and shot to death inside the "I Can't Believe It's Yogurt" store on Anderson Lane in 1991. Their bodies were then set on fire to cover up the crimes.
"Not a hair, not a fingerprint, not a piece of physical evidence has ever been found to link either or any of these four boys to this crime," said Gauthier.
Gauthier admits the DNA evidence is preliminary and hasn’t been through profile comparisons, but believes it’s still enough to overturn Springsteen’s and Scott’s convictions which were primarily based on the men’s video-taped confessions to APD investigators.
The men were convicted by separate juries of capital murder. Charges against Welborn and Pierce have already been dismissed.
"If the crime and the confession don't fit, it's what you've got and what you have now is false confessions and ya'll know it's happening all over the country there's been over 200 people exonerated post conviction and 25 percent of those have been through false confessions and how are those people getting out? It's DNA and that's what we have here. We have the wrong people. There are killers out still," said Gauthier.
Meanwhile, Scott's attorneys asked for what Judge Lynch called an unusual request -- they want two attorneys from New York to help represent Scott during trial.
"There's a number of forensic issues, it's too many for one lawyer or even two to learn," said Carlos Garcia, Scott’s attorney.
While Scott's wife, Jeannine Scott, looked on, the attorneys argued the state has all the resources it needs in court, but two lawyers isn't enough to represent their client during trial. One of the potential New York attorneys was in court Wednesday.
"We do pro-bono work all over America and this was a case very interesting for us (because it's a capital murder case) we asked to help out and they said they welcomed it," said Robert Romano, New York lawyer.
Judge Lynch didn't grant the motions allowing out-of-state attorneys to represent Scott, saying instead he would review the motion more closely. If Judge Lynch does grant the motion, Scott would have five representing attorneys during trial.
Scott’s wife is hopeful the motions will be granted and the DNA evidence will be allowed during trial.
"I cannot fault them for a lack of technology that wasn't developed at the time (of the first trial), but they've got it now. They need to be using it and they need to be doing the right thing," said Jeannine Scott.
The next hearing is scheduled for March 4th. The District Attorney’s Office says it will wait until then, once full comparisons with the DNA evidence is complete, before making any public statements.
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