49ers roll out red carpet for fan who had been wrongly incarcerated for decades

·Columnist

18 December 2018 at 3:21 pm

The San Francisco 49ers rolled out the red carpet for a fan on Sunday, a man who spent over 20 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.

Malcolm Scott, an Oklahoma native, and his brother were flown to Santa Clara, California, for Sunday’s 49ers game against Seattle Seahawks. Scott got a jersey, a tour of the facility, and was on the sideline before the game, meeting general manager John Lynch and one of his all-time favorite players, linebacker Keena Turner.

He also got to see a great game: San Francisco upset the Seahawks in overtime, breaking a 10-game losing streak to their NFC West rivals.

The team said the visit was part of its social justice programming.

49ers fan Malcolm Scott, center, who spent 22 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, was a guest of the team at its game against Seattle on Sunday. Here he poses with former San Francisco linebacker Keena Turner and general manager John Lynch. (49ers/Twitter)

Scott was 17 years old and a member of the Crips gang in 1994 when he and another teenager, De’Marchoe Carpenter, were charged with first-degree murder in a drive-by shooting in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that killed one young woman and injured two teenagers.

The pair were found guilty and sentenced to life sentences plus 170 years; the convictions were upheld on appeal.

Police had arrested Michael Wilson, a member of the rival Bloods, just days after the shooting. Wilson was trying to hide a .380 caliber weapon from police, and had a maroon Ford Taurus that he’d rented just days before the shooting in the driveway of his house. A .380 caliber bullet was found at the scene, and the shooter was driving a maroon Ford Taurus.

[Play in our Week 16 DFS contest: $1M prize pool. $100K to first. Join now!]

At the time of his arrest, Wilson told police he was the only person who had driven the car, and that he hadn’t loaned the gun to anyone. But police told Wilson they believed Scott and Carpenter were responsible for the shooting, and suddenly Wilson changed his story, saying he’d given the two young men ammunition, and that he held the gun from the shooting for them after they asked.

Years later, two witnesses who placed Scott and Carpenter in the maroon Taurus, recanted, and said police had forced them to falsely testify against Scott and Carpenter, threatening to get them convicted on other charges.

Wilson also recanted. While in jail in 1995, he told another inmate that Scott and Carpenter weren’t involved in the drive-by shooting.

In 2014, Scott and Carpenter filed a petition seeking a new trial, citing the recantations. Working with the Innocence Project, which helps get men and women serving time for crimes they didn’t commit free, their convictions were vacated in 2016 and they were declared “actually innocent.” Wilson had given a taped confession just days before he was executed by the state for a different murder.

Scott and Carpenter had lost 22 years of their lives in the interim. In 2017, they filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city of Tulsa and two former police detectives.

Scott’s story struck a chord with Niners quarterback Nick Mullen, who tweeted, “Malcolm has one heck of a story about overcoming adversity and never giving up! It was a pleasure and honor to hangout for a day. Much respect!”