Michael Scott and his daughter Jazmine Scott listen to a news conference after he was exonerated at a hearing for four men wrongfully accused in the 1991 Austin yogurt shop murders at the Blackwell-Thurman Criminal Justice Center in Austin on Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026. Forrest Welborn, Michael Scott, Robert Springsteen and Maurice Pierce, who is deceased, were declared actually innocent during the hearing. Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
After an emotional exoneration hearing last week, lawyers for the four men wrongfully accused of the 1991 yogurt shop murders said they were focused squarely on securing public declarations of innocence for their clients: Robert Springsteen, Michael Scott, Forrest Welborn and Maurice Pierce.
Now, with those exonerations in hand, the attorneys are turning toward what they describe as the next phase of justice: Some type of restitution for the men and their families who at Thursday’s hearing detailed decades of unfounded agony, upheaval and harassment…