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Panel: No proof that Smith was at scene
Citizens committee was reviewing Marker beating
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Published: March 18, 2009
The citizens committee reviewing the police investigation of a 1995 assault case yesterday voted against a member's proposal that the committee call on the Winston-Salem City Council to free Kalvin Michael Smith, the man convicted in the case.
Instead, committee members approved a less-strident resolution to the city council, saying that they had found no credible evidence that Smith was at the Silk Plant Forest store on the day or at the time of the assault.
Committee members also discussed an interview conducted with Smith last week by two police investigators assigned to work with the committee. And they heard about the latest efforts by the city to compel the original detective in the case to be interviewed.
The three committee members who sat in on the interview with Smith said they found him credible. Smith did not agree to submit to a polygraph test for the committee. Committee Chairman Guy Blynn, who watched the interview, said that an attorney has advised Smith against taking a polygraph.
Committee members approved a draft of their recommendations to be sent to the city council by Friday. City Attorney Angela Carmon said that the draft could not be released to the public because it is an internal document, and parts of it may have to be reviewed by a court. The committee plans to supplement the draft with additional reports in the future.
For the last eight months, the citizens committee has been reviewing the Winston-Salem Police Department's investigation into the December 1995 beating of Jill Marker, who was a clerk at the Silk Plant Forest off Silas Creek Parkway. Smith was convicted in 1997 and is serving 23 to 29 years in prison.
Marker was pregnant at the time of the attack, in which she was struck in the head about 20 times. She later gave birth to a son 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.
The resolution approved by the committee last night was one of three proposed last month by member James Ferree. Ferree had suggested that the committee ask the city council to do what it could to free Smith and to say that there is no credible evidence that Smith was at the store. He also wanted the committee to ask the city council to inform prosecutors and Smith's attorneys about that finding.
The committee stopped short of telling the council to try to free Smith, and it also voted down a Ferree proposal that the council forward to Smith's attorneys and to state prosecutors the committee's findings that it had no evidence that Smith was at the store that day.
The city council, in creating the citizens committee, specifically instructed members to not form an opinion about Smith's guilt or innocence. The resolution that the panel approved last night expressly states that the committee is refraining from determining Smith's guilt or innocence in the beating.
"We are not intending to overstep our boundaries and judge guilt or innocence," member James Taylor said. "But we are fans of justice."
Ferree said that the committee's refusal to request that the city council try to free Smith was a moral failure, regardless of the council's charge to the panel.
Smith's cause has been taken up by the Innocence Project at Duke University's law school, which has been investigating the case since 2003. In 2004, a five-part investigation by the Winston-Salem Journal found many problems with the investigation by the original police detective, Don Williams, as well as with work by prosecutors and Smith's original defense attorney. The series also raised questions about the reliability of testimony by Marker, who was severely wounded. Marker is now blind; she lives in Ohio under 24-hour care.
The committee's initial report is due to the City Council by Friday. The committee's next meeting will be at 5:30 p.m. on Monday at City Hall.
■ Laura Graff can be reached at 727-7279 or at lgraff@wsjournal.com.
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