After spending over 20 years incarcerated for a crime he says he didn’t commit, Danyel Smith had hoped to celebrate his first Thanksgiving at home this November. However, despite a recent victory at the Supreme Court of Georgia, it is likely he will remain incarcerated for the rest of the year.
“I jokingly told him last night that we have five white [lottery] balls, but we just didn’t get the Mega Ball,” Smith’s fiancée, Latasha Pyatt, told Capital B Atlanta. “We won a little bit, but we just didn’t get the Mega Ball this time. But it’s coming.”
In 2003, Smith was convicted of murdering his infant son based on a medical examiner’s diagnosis that the 2-month-old boy had sustained abusive head trauma, labeled at the time as shaken baby syndrome. He was sentenced to life.
Last week, in a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court of Georgia reversed a ruling by a Gwinnett County judge denying Smith a new trial and sent the case back to the lower court with an order to apply the appropriate legal framework in their decision.
“It’s somewhat bittersweet because we, for the last five years, have been litigating this case with what we believe is evidence that Mr. Smith is innocent, and while we won today, he’s still in prison,” Mark Loudon-Brown, Smith’s attorney with the Southern Center for Human Rights Capital Litigation Unit told Capital B Atlanta on Oct. 15.
Even though they had been warned by the attorneys that this was a possible outcome, Pyatt said her fiancé had been optimistic that the Supreme Court would grant him a new trial because of how long he had been incarcerated.
“He was extremely disappointed. … I would even go as far as saying he was devastated with the news,” she said.
About a week before the court’s decision was announced, Smith was transferred from Dooly State Prison in Unadilla to Riverbend Correctional Facility, a privately run prison in Milledgeville, which Pyatt believes is contributing to his distress.
“Another delay is just very, very disheartening and heartbreaking for the both of us and the whole family, to be honest,” Pyatt added.
Loudon-Brown doesn’t expect to have to present the evidence again but said they anticipate a hearing to argue why a correct application of the law means Smith should be granted a new trial.
“While this is a pending case, the Georgia Supreme Court has sent it back for consideration by the trial judge. We will continue to advocate on behalf of the victims and the people of the state of GA,” a spokesperson for Gwinnett County District Attorney Patsy Austin-Gatson wrote in a statement to Capital B Atlanta.
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A Georgia Father Claims He Didn’t Kill His Infant Son. Will the State Supreme Court Believe Him?
