Scott Minton Is Exonerated in Tennessee After Three Decades of Wrongful Conviction

An Investigation Driven by Tunnel Vision

On the morning of October 31, 1993, Faye Watson claimed that three people, two men and a woman, broke into her home, while her family was at church. They ransacked her house and stole $8,000. Ms. Watson, who remained at home, was bound, tortured, and sexually assaulted at knife point. They shot her in the leg as they fled her house. Ms. Watson called neighbors for help, who telephoned police. Ms. Watson told police that one of the men was Shannon Blaylock, a former foster-care child who used to live with her and her family. When police went to look for Mr. Blaylock that day, they found Mr. Minton with him, working on his car. 

Mr. Minton became a suspect solely because of his association with Mr. Blaylock. When police initially questioned Mr. Minton, he gave a detailed account of his whereabouts on the morning of the crime. He had been shopping for a car part in Dayton, TN, and provided police with time-stamped receipts of his purchases. Police also spoke with multiple witnesses who all corroborated Mr. Minton’s alibi. Police never found any evidence connecting Mr. Minton to the crime, including the $8,000 supposedly stolen from the house.  

However, two days after the attack, Ms. Watson identified Mr. Minton in a live lineup, even though she did not identify him when she had previously viewed a photo array that included his photograph. After Ms. Watson’s identification, police interrogated Mr. Minton again and extracted a confession from him. Police arrested Mr. Minton and, from that point forward, accepted Ms. Watson’s story as fact, disregarding overwhelming evidence of Mr. Minton’s innocence. It was a classic example of “tunnel vision.” 

Invalidated Eyewitness Identification

Eyewitness misidentification is the leading contributor to wrongful convictions. At the post-conviction evidentiary hearing, Mr. Minton presented an expert witness who discussed advances in eyewitness identification research since the original trial, establishing that Ms. Watson’s identification of Mr. Minton was highly unreliable. The court found this updated research constituted new scientific evidence. 

The day of the incident, Ms. Watson was unable to identify Mr. Minton in a photo array, but then picked him out of a live lineup two days later. This initial non-identification of Mr. Minton was critical. Statistical analysis of identifications shows that suspects who are not identified at the first opportunity typically had no involvement in the crime. Further, her initial description of the assailant did not match Mr. Minton. The human memory is incredibly malleable, and an eyewitness is likely to inaccurately recall details about what they saw, particularly under intense pressure, through suggestive police practices, or over time. The “exposure effect” in this identification — the amount of time Mr. Minton was seen in the first photo array —  doubled the likelihood of Ms. Watson selecting him in the lineup. 

A Textbook False Confession

Mr. Minton, who lives with an intellectual disability and anxiety, was highly susceptible to making a false confession. At the post-conviction evidentiary hearing, Mr. Minton presented an expert who testified about advances in false confession research since 1994. He also testified that Mr. Minton’s statement exhibited hallmarks of a false confession. The court found this new research constituted new scientific evidence. During the interrogation, police used psychologically coercive techniques, lying to him, and convincing him to sign a waiver of his rights despite being functionally illiterate. He was prone to extreme emotional responses when faced with anxiety and stress, breaking down in tears throughout the multiple interrogations. 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. Interrogators also fed Mr. Minton facts of the crime that he subsequently included in his confession.

Research shows that false confessions may result from law enforcement’s use of intimidation, coercive tactics, isolation, deceptive methods that include lying about evidence, and more. An innocent person may falsely confess because of increased stress, mental exhaustion, or promises of lenient sentences, and people with intellectual disabilities are particularly vulnerable. Despite giving a minute-by-minute account of his whereabouts with18 alibi witnesses supporting Mr. Minton’s story, law enforcement coerced him to sign a confession that he could not read. 

At trial, Mr. Minton testified about the conditions of his confinement, his interrogation, and why that led to him confessing to a crime that he did not commit. The jury, however, found him guilty on all charges and he was sentenced to 46 years in prison.

Adnan Sultan, a senior staff attorney at the Innocence Project in New York, and Jessica Van Dyke, the legal director at the Tennessee Innocence Project, served as lead counsel for Mr. Minton. They worked with Christa Alexander, a Foderaro Post-Conviction Litigation Fellow at the Innocence Project; Madison Lowery, a staff attorney at the Tennessee Innocence Project; and Marc Caudel, an investigator at the Tennessee Innocence Project.