Parents Hope Sentencing of Son Can Be Changed...
...in particular because of the circumstances:
Their issue lies with Alabama’s accomplice liability law which allows a suspect to be charged with murder if someone is killed during the commission of a crime regardless of whether they caused the death.
When the five teens broke into a Millbrook home, suspect A’Donte Washington was fatally shot by a responding Millbrook Police officer after he charged the officer with a gun. As a result, Smith and three other co-defendants were charged with murder for Washington’s death.
On Friday, Smith appeared before Elmore County Circuit Judge Sibley Reynolds in a post-conviction hearing. Smith’s attorney, Leroy Maxwell argued that Smith’s trial attorney failed to present mitigating evidence that could have helped to shorten his sentence.
So instead of just being charged with breaking and entering and/or theft, Smith was charged with the death of someone he didn't kill (again, the police did that).
65 years seems like a long time to be serving for the death of someone you didn't murder (or even direct to murder). There's a site dedicated to getting justice for smith with more information.
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