en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_Austin_yogurt_shop_murders
3 corrections found
2947 West Anderson Lane, Austin, Texas, U.S.
The yogurt shop’s address is reported by official and contemporaneous sources as 2949 West Anderson Lane, not 2947.
Full reasoning
The street number in the location line appears to be off by two digits. The Austin Police Department’s 2025 case update identifies the I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt shop as being at 2949 West Anderson Lane. A published excerpt from Beverly Lowry’s Who Killed These Girls?—a detailed nonfiction account of the case—also gives the address as 2949 West Anderson Lane when describing the dispatch call on the night of the murders. Because multiple credible sources independently use 2949, the article’s 2947 location is incorrect.
2 sources
- Significant Breakthrough Made in 1991 I Can't Believe It's Yogurt Murders | AustinTexas.gov
Shortly before midnight on Friday, December 6, 1991, an Austin Police patrol officer observed fire coming from the I Can't Believe It's Yogurt! (ICBY) shop located at 2949 West Anderson Lane and reported it to dispatch.
- Who Killed These Girls? | Penguin Random House Higher Education
"Two fatalities," the dispatcher told him ... "And he gave him the address: I Can't Believe It's Yogurt!, 2949 West Anderson Lane."
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned both convictions in 2008
This compresses two separate reversals into the wrong year. Springsteen’s conviction was overturned in 2006, and Scott’s was overturned in 2007.
Full reasoning
The two convictions were not both overturned in 2008. Robert Springsteen’s capital murder conviction was reversed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on May 24, 2006, as contemporaneous coverage of the ruling reported. Michael Scott’s conviction was overturned later, in June 2007, when the same court reversed his conviction and remanded for a new trial. So the article’s statement that both convictions were overturned in 2008 is incorrect on both the timing and the fact that the reversals happened in different years.
2 sources
- Yogurt Shop Reversal | The Austin Chronicle
After nearly three years of waiting, on May 24 the state Court of Criminal Appeals finally issued a ruling in the case of yogurt shop-murder defendant Robert Springsteen IV. The court overturned Springsteen's capital murder conviction...
- Scott v. State :: 2007 :: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Decisions
Date: June 6, 2007 ... For the reasons stated above we reverse the judgment of the court of appeals, reverse the appellant's conviction, and remand him to the custody of the Travis County Sheriff to answer to the indictment.
giving the families of cold case victims the opportunity to petition the federal government to reexamine cases older than three years
The law does not cover cold cases in general. It applies to murders under federal law that were investigated by a federal law enforcement entity.
Full reasoning
This description overstates the scope of the Homicide Victims' Families' Rights Act. Official summaries say the law applies to victims of murder under federal law and to cases that were investigated by a federal law enforcement entity. It does not give the families of all cold-case victims a general right to have the federal government reexamine any murder older than three years. The article leaves out those federal-jurisdiction limits, which materially changes what the law covers.
2 sources
- H.R.3359 - Homicide Victims' Families' Rights Act of 2021 | Congress.gov
This bill establishes a framework for immediate family members of a victim of murder under federal law to request a review of the victim's case file if the murder was committed more than three years prior, the murder was investigated by a federal law enforcement entity...
- Swalwell and McCaul introduce bipartisan bill to give more rights to families of homicide victims in federal cases
The Homicide Victims' Families Rights Act of 2020 would give relatives of victims of homicide under federal law the right to have their loved one's case file reviewed, once the case has gone cold after three years.