A 69-year-old man who spent the last four decades in state prison will soon be released after Orange County prosecutors uncovered evidence casting doubt on his role in a decades-old murder. It’s the latest development in the long-running Orange County snitch scandal.
The details: Larry Miner was killed in his apartment in 1981 while three men were staying with him. One of them became an informant for prosecutors and helped convict Guy Scott for his alleged role in the murder. But a judge this week threw out the informant’s testimony, and lowered Scott’s conviction to voluntary manslaughter, which means he’ll be released from prison in the coming days after spending 41 years behind bars.
What is the snitch scandal?: The term was coined back in 2014 when then-public defender Scott Sanders began uncovering evidence of a secret jailhouse informant program in Orange County. Subsequently, a string of judges — and the U.S. Department of Justice — determined the informant program violated defendants’ constitutional right to due process. As a result of the misconduct, judges have dropped or lessened charges against people previously convicted in close to 60 cases, including, most recently, Scott.
Read on ... for more about this scandal that continues to unfold.
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Freed after 40 years in prison: The latest victim of the OC 'Jailhouse Snitch' scandal
A judge this week ordered the release of a man who has spent the last 41 years in prison in a case marked by prosecutorial misconduct, the latest fallout in the long-running Orange County “jailhouse snitch” scandal.
Guy Scott, who’s now 69 with gray hair and a wiry mustache, wiped away tears and pressed his hands together in gratitude as the judge announced that he would reduce the charges against Scott from murder to manslaughter. That means Scott, who was patched into the O.C. courtroom via teleconference from Corcoran state prison, has more than served his sentence and will be released in the coming days.
“This is a true second chance,” said Scott Sanders, the man’s lawyer.
Sanders is the former O.C. public defender who, a decade ago, first uncovered the county’s secret jailhouse informant program, now known as the “snitch scandal.” Since then, close to 60 convictions, including Scott’s, have been reduced or overturned, and the O.C. District Attorney’s Office and Sheriff’s Department have fought to recover their reputation and implement reforms.
After the hearing this week, Sanders commended Orange County prosecutors’ efforts to unearth and share the long-hidden evidence that led to Scott’s imminent release from prison.
“They ultimately did the right thing,” he told LAist.
How we got here
Larry Miner was killed in his apartment in 1981 while three men were staying with him. Two of the men, Scott and Peter McDonald, were convicted of the murder, while a third, Robert Neary, became an informant for prosecutors and was given immunity in exchange for his testimony.
New evidence suggests Neary lied to put increasing blame on Scott for Miner’s death, and to downplay his own role. But some of that evidence was initially hidden from Scott’s lawyers. Earlier this year, though, the evidence was discovered by an O.C. prosecutor and turned over to Scott’s new lawyer, Sanders.
If that evidence had initially been given to Scott’s lawyers, he “would have been acquitted 41 years ago,” Sanders wrote in a recent court filing.
Ultimately, both sides agreed to reduce the charges against Scott from first-degree murder to the much-less-serious voluntary manslaughter. That charge carries a sentence of up to 11 years in prison, meaning Scott has spent at least an extra three decades behind bars.
“It’s the most rewarding part of this job when justice finally gets delivered,” Sanders said, “but it’s also brutal that it took this long. He cannot get those years back.”
The start of the 'snitch scandal'
Assistant public defender Scott Sanders, at right, surfaced evidence of a secret, unconstitutional jailhouse informant program.
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Mark Boster
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Getty Images
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In 2014, Sanders, who worked for the O.C. Public Defender’s Office at the time, was defending Scott Dekraai, the man accused of gunning down eight people at a Seal Beach salon several years earlier. And it was then that Sanders discovered evidence of a secret jailhouse informant program in Orange County.
Subsequently, a string of judges — and the U.S. Department of Justice — determined the informant program violated defendants’ constitutional right to due process in two ways:
One, by having informants or “snitches” question defendants behind bars without them knowing their words could be used against them in court, and without their lawyer present; and
Two, by not turning over evidence about those informants to defendants.
The misconduct now known as "the snitch scandal" happened under Tony Rackauckas, the previous district attorney.
Even as evidence of the scandal mounted, Rackauckas repeatedly denied the existence of a secret informant program. He lost his re-election bid in 2018 to current District Attorney Todd Spitzer, who has implemented reforms and pledged not to tolerate cheating among prosecutors.
Coincidentally, Rackauckas was the prosecutor handling Scott’s case at the time and served as a witness in several phases of Scott’s trial. The discovery of misconduct in the use of informants in Scott’s case suggests the problem extends back “at least thirty years earlier” than the period investigated by the federal Department of Justice,” Sanders wrote in a recent court filing. “No single individual bears more responsibility for what has occurred — and what remains hidden — than Rackauckas,” Sanders wrote.
After this week’s resentencing hearing, Sanders told LAist that Scott’s decades-long wrongful imprisonment “may be the worst [of the snitch scandal] in terms of life sacrificed.”
Scott plans to move into a sober living home in Northern California as soon as he’s released.
“I cannot put enough words into how much I appreciate you,” Scott told Sanders and his colleagues at the hearing.
