LaKeith Smith Wiki – LaKeith Smith Biography
LaKeith Smith was 15 years old when police shot and killed his friend during a botched robbery. But a legal doctrine led Smith to be tried and convicted of murder for the death of his friend. A few weekends ago, I took a trip to Selma, Alabama on Bloody Sunday to show my support for “Justice for LaKeith Smith.” coalition and the Smith family.
The trip was to raise awareness of the new sentence for LaKeith Smith, a young black man who, in 2018, was sentenced to 65 years in prison (reduced to 55 years in 2019) after a police officer shot dead his friend during a botched robbery in Elmore County, Ala. I met with LaKeith’s mother, Tina, to share information about her son’s devastating case and to participate in a Bloody Sunday remembrance march.
LaKeith Smith Age
LaKeith Smith Was 15 years old.
LaKeith Smith Cause of Death
In 2015, LaKeith, who was 15 at the time, and a group of friends were involved in raids on two vacant homes in Millbrook, Alabama, looking for Xbox games and tablets. When local police officers arrived at the scene, one of the officers shot LaKeith’s 16-year-old friend, A’Donte Washington. A’Donte died at the scene. Although he was the youngest of the group, LaKeith was denied trial as a juvenile and charged as an adult.
He was found guilty of robbery, burglary and felony manslaughter, a legal doctrine that led to him being charged with the death of his friend. LaKeith has remained incarcerated at the St. Clair Correctional Center ever since. On Tuesday, he was re-sentenced to 30 years by the same judge he faced nearly five years ago, ignoring the victim’s family, the child psychologist and even going beyond the recommendation of the 25-year-old district attorney.
This same judge had announced his retirement in December, but essentially came out of retirement from him to handle this case. As I traveled the hour from Montgomery to Selma for the first time, along the same trail that thousands of Black activists and nonviolent protesters marched 58 years ago, I was struck by the lack of historical markers along the trail.
For such an important moment in our nation’s history, I expected to see something, anything that would honor how, in an act of frustration and determination, our civil rights forefathers walked 54 miles to demand the right to vote and confront brutalities. of an unfair segregationist. system. But the road was eerily quiet: there was little traffic, even on such a momentous occasion.
It wasn’t until I walked into Selma that I was greeted by a show. Entire caravans of journalists, photographers, and officials were occupying space and blocking the streets, positioned both physically and metaphorically above the community. I was angered by the idea that the community was being left behind when they should have been front and center on a day of remembrance.
The idea that those like Tina Smith are experiencing injustice and have to watch the caravans of those in power go by. The idea that LaKeith is expected to continue to wait patiently behind bars for a murder he didn’t commit while the powers that be carry on with business as usual. The sickening display of power, leaving behind the people who need it most, made me physically sick and discouraged.
It wasn’t until I stopped and took a deep breath that I realized what I was feeling. It was pity. I was grieving. For LaKeith and so many others who have been victims of an unfair system. The history of our people, the determination, courage and pain that they went through in this very place shook me to the core, almost suffocating me.
I found relief in the incredible warmth of the community, a throng of local Alabama people as well as those who had traveled to Selma in an act of remembrance and solitude. With each little smile from an elderly couple and each familiar conversation, I was able to rebuild a place of gratitude and remember that the work was not done and that I had a reason to be here. He wasn’t just marching in remembrance, he was marching for justice.
For LaKeith. To Tina and the family. For the future of our community. Tina and I walked across the bridge together, both of us for the first time, not saying a word outside of the occasional chants of freedom and justice that rang out. We were all connected: the signs, the t-shirts, the stories, the mourning and the fight, strengthening our resolve by sharing our stories together.
This week, on March 21, 58 years after Bloody Sunday and 54 miles from the Selma to Montgomery march, LaKeith Smith, now 24, was re-sentenced to 30 years in prison after witnessing a police officer murder to his friend eight years ago. It is time to confront a brutal system and show the courts.
