A 24-year-old Black man who was convicted of killing his friend as a teen despite the 16-year-old being shot and killed by the police is fighting for his freedom.
LaKeith Smith was 15 years old when he and his friends broke into a house in Millbrook, Alabama to steal an Xbox on Feb. 23, 2015. Police arrived on the scene after being notified of a burglary in progress and confronted the teenagers. Smith reportedly ran into the woods as a police officer fatally shot his friend, 16-year-old A’Donte Washington. The police claimed that they returned gunfire after being shot at from inside the house on Clearview Lane.
Smith and three other teenagers were charged with felony murder as the officer who killed A’Donte was cleared by the Elmore County grand jury of any wrongdoing. The three teens arrested with Smith, then-18-year-olds Jaderrion D. Hardy and Jhavarske Jackson, as well as then-17-year-old Le’Anthony S. Washington, accepted plea deals. They received between 17 to 28 years in prison.
Smith decided to go to trial, and even though the all-white jury understood that the police shot and killed A’Donte’s friend, LaKeith was convicted of his death under the state’s felony murder law. The Alabama law allows any person committing a felony to be found liable for whatever deaths may occur during the commission of the crime.
LaKeith was tried as an adult for his friend’s murder and convicted. The teenager was sentenced to 65 years in prison. An appeals court later reduced the sentence to 55 years, and on March 21, he was resentenced to 30 years in prison.
Smith’s attorney Leroy Maxwell Jr. said that they will appeal his conviction and sentence while calling it “a grave miscarriage of justice.”
“What we plan on doing and what we need to do is to appeal the conviction and appeal the sentence,” Maxwell said. “We think they were both done injustice and so that’s our next step. There’s been a grave miscarriage of…
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