Kalvin Michael Smith, his mother and a handful of Smith's most outspoken supporters got their first chance to talk to a new citizens committee last night.
The Silk Plant Forest Citizen Review Committee held a special meeting to solicit suggestions from the community about how it should operate and what it should investigate.
The Winston-Salem City Council created the committee last month to conduct a fact-finding review into the case of Jill Marker, who was beaten nearly to death in the Silk Plant Forest store off Silas Creek Parkway in 1995.
Smith is serving a minimum sentence of 22 years and 10 months for the crime. He maintains that he is innocent.
Smith's supporters started the meeting by playing a tape of Smith's statement to the committee.
"This committee's work is vitally important," Smith said, "because I know for a fact that if you nine members delve into this matter unbiased, neutral and with an open mind, as I am optimistic that you will, then you will see that a vicious criminal is still at large."
The committee is not charged with determining Smith's guilt or innocence. But if the committee uncovers any evidence during its investigation, it is obligated to turn the evidence over to the prosecutors and Smith's attorneys.
The committee's final report is due Dec. 15.
Only a handful of the 25 people who attended the meeting in the Stuart Building in downtown Winston-Salem spoke.
Smith's mother, Sheila LeGrande, asked the committee to conduct a thorough and fair review of the Marker case.
"I'm here to ask that you be fair in your judgment," she said. "I ask that you carefully research and look at everything."
The committee was modeled after the Deborah Sykes Citizens Administrative Review Committee, which was set up in July 2005 to study how the police department investigated Sykes' murder. Darryl Hunt was falsely imprisoned for nearly 19 years for that crime.
Several people involved in that review attended last night's meeting. Jet Hollander, a former member of the Sykes Review Committee, gave advice to the Silk Plant Forest committee members.
Hollander has been one of Smith's most outspoken supporters. He lobbied city staff to expand the committee's scope and independence.
"Your scope is broad. We worked hard to make it broad," he said. "Don't let people tell you you can't see this or you can't do that."
Hollander offered a range of advice, from encouraging the committee to record all of its interviews, public meetings and closed-session meetings to recommending that committee members make detailed timelines of events surrounding the crime.
Hunt sat in the audience. He did not speak during the public session but said afterward that he plans to attend all of the committee meetings. He said he wants to make sure the committee does its job and that the truth comes out.
"To sit and be on this end of it is really interesting," Hunt said. "I can feel Kalvin Smith's pain. I lived through it."
Guy Blynn, the chairman of the committee, said that people who did not attend last night's meeting can submit written comments to the committee or attend any of its public meetings. Blynn has encouraged committee members not to talk to people about their work outside of the public meetings.
The next committee meeting will be held at 5:30 p.m. April 28 in the Stuart Building.
■ Blair Goldstein can be reached at 727-7284 or at
bgoldstein@wsjournal.com.
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