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Panel holds off on decision
Some members have reservations about statement on innocence
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Published: March 6, 2009
The citizens committee reviewing the handling of the Silk Plant Forest assault case postponed a decision last night on whether to ask the Winston-Salem City Council to do what it can to free the man convicted in the case, Kalvin Smith.
Committee members all agreed that they did not have confidence in the Winston-Salem Police Department's investigation of the case or the results of that investigation.
But the committee stopped short of voting on a proposal made last month by member James Ferree to say that there is no credible evidence that Smith was at the Silk Plant Forest store, where Jill Marker was beaten in 1995.
Ferree also proposed that the committee ask the city council to tell prosecutors and others about that finding.
It appeared last night that Ferree's proposal would face a close vote on the nine-member committee. Some members asked for the delay until after committee investigators speak with Smith. That interview is scheduled for next Friday.
The committee's mission specifically includes the instruction that the members not form an opinion about Smith's guilt or innocence.
At least three of the nine committee members said last night that they could not support Ferree's idea, and two others said they also had reservations.
"I think we get over into doing what we're not supposed to be doing," said Bill Davis, a committee member. "And I think it flies in the face of the jury and the judge."
Smith is serving 23 to 29 years in prison for the crime. Marker was pregnant at the time of the attack and was hit in the head about 20 times. She later gave birth while in a coma.
Smith asked for a new trial last year, alleging that witnesses against him were pressured by police and have since recanted. He also claimed that his trial attorney was ineffective.
Judge Richard Doughton rejected his request after a weeklong hearing in January.
Several committee members said yesterday that though each member can lobby the city council on Smith's behalf, that goes beyond what the committee should do. The committee can't put itself in the shoes of the jury that heard the testimony and saw something it believed, they said.
Ferree responded by comparing the situation to driving outside of your neighborhood, seeing a house on fire and not calling 911.
"None of us would do that," he said.
"You're talking about it's not in our scope. Well, somebody's son is locked up…. Whether it's in your scope, you have to do something about it."
In other business, the committee learned that Don Williams, who was the the lead detective in the case and has since retired, has yet to be served with a subpoena to appear in court.
The city council has asked a judge for a court hearing to compel Williams to obey a council subpoena to testify before the committee.
Williams has to be served with a separate subpoena for that hearing, which is scheduled for the week of March 23.
Guy Blynn, the committee chairman, said that Williams appears to be avoiding the subpoena, which "tends to discredit the entire body of his work (and) tends to discredit an entire department full of dedicated officers who are a credit to their profession."
Blynn and other committee members have also criticized the Winston-Salem Journal for refusing to let former reporter Phoebe Zerwick testify voluntarily to the committee.
A series of Zerwick's stories in 2004 included quotes from Williams in which he said he did not document some of his work to keep it from Smith's defense attorney. Williams has since denied saying that.
Al Andrews, an assistant city attorney, said that the company the city uses to serve its subpoenas has not been able to find Williams and that he may have left the county.
Some documents, including the draft report the committee discussed for most of last night's meeting, also have yet to be made public.
Carmon and Andrews said that they would be sending a question to Doughton, the judge for Smith's hearing, as they evaluate a public-records request the Journal made last week for those documents.
The committee's next meeting is at 5:30 p.m. March 17 in the committee room at City Hall.
March 17 is also the deadline for a first report from the committee, but an extension until March 20 would be fine, City Manager Lee Garrity told the committee.
■ Dan Galindo can be reached at 727-7377 or at dgalindo@wsjournal.com.
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