By Robert J. Hansen | Special to The OBSERVER
Lakeith Smith was charged with murder at age 15 after police shot and killed his 16-year-old friend, A’Donte Washington, while they and some other teens were trying to steal an Xbox from a home.
An Alabama courtroom was filled with family, friends and supporters from across the country March 21 when Elmore County Judge Sibley G. Reynolds resentenced 24-year-old Smith to 30 years in prison for felony murder.
Many of Smith’s friends and family hoped for his release and left the courtroom in tears after Judge Reynolds told Smith his decision.
“My heart hurts so bad,” his mother Brontina Smith said after the hearing.
In Alabama and most other states, felony accomplice liability laws are such that if someone is killed while a crime is being committed, anyone involved can be held responsible.
These laws historically have been disproportionately applied in cases involving Black and brown people.
Smith originally was sentenced to 65 years in prison for murder and other charges related to the burglary, which had been reduced to 55 years before the March 21 hearing.
“I deeply regret what I did that day. I did not understand how the felony murder rule worked. I was too young and immature to handle a situation with adult weight,” Smith said at the hearing. “I apologize to this court for the immaturity that I previously displayed.”
Judge Reynolds ordered the multiple sentences be served concurrently, lowering Smith’s total time in prison to 30 years. Smith will be about 45 years old by then.
“What I’ve essentially done is drop it from 55 to 30 years,” Reynolds said.
Sacramento human rights advocate Jamilia Land said “it makes no sense” why Smith is in prison when it was a police officer who killed Washington.
“They [the police] killed this young man and LaKeith has to pay for it,” Land said.
Smith’s attorneys called on several witnesses, including Smith’s mother, grandfather and Andre Washington, the father of the teen killed by police, to testify on his behalf.
Washington blames the police, not Smith, for his son’s death.
“He’s not the one who murdered my son,” Washington testified.
Washington said he thinks Smith should have been punished only for the burglary and that the eight years he has served are enough.
District Attorney C.J. Robinson did little to no cross-examination of the witnesses, telling Washington that he was sorry for the loss of his son.
Robinson said he expected to hear from Smith some acknowledgment and responsibility for the consequences of his choices.
“I was hoping to hear that ‘Yeah, this mitigation may explain my decision-making process. But at the end of the day, I’m ready to man up and say that I … caused my friend’s death,’” Robinson said.
Leroy Maxwell, Smith’s attorney, said not only is Smith’s sentence a miscarriage of justice, but the conviction as well.
“We think they both were injustices and so that’s our next step. There’s been a grave miscarriage of justice as far as Lakeith is concerned,” Maxwell said. “He should be home right now. And the fact that he isn’t is a shame.”
Maxwell said he plans to appeal both the resentencing and the conviction.
“This time around we need to challenge his [Lakeith’s] conviction,” Maxwell said. “Felony murder rule has got to go.”
Brontina said she will not stop fighting until her son comes home.
“They’re going to give me my baby back,” Brontina said.