SMITH, GERALD
General Information
DOB: 10-7-58
Race: White
Gender: Male
Crime and Trial
County of conviction: St. Louis City
Number of counts: One (first case)
One (second case)
Race of victim: White (first case)
African-American (second case)
Gender of victim: Female (first case)
Male (second case)
Date of crime: 1980 (first case)
November 19, 1985 (second case)
Date of sentencing: August 19, 1981 (first case)
Date of execution: January 18, 1990
Legal status:
Last counsel of record:
C. John "Chet" Pleban
Pleban & Associates
100 S. 4th St., Suite 600
St. Louis, MO 63102
314-241-4141
Sean D. O'Brien
Public Interest Litigation Clinic
305 E. 63rd St.
Kansas City, MO 64113
816-363-2795
Last judicial decision:
--Affirmance of district court's denial of habeas relief on the merits (as to first case). See Smith v. Armontrout, 888 F.2d 530 (8th Cir. 1989)
Reported Opinions:
AS TO FIRST CASE:
--Conviction and sentence affirmed on direct appeal by State v. Smith, 649 S.W.2d 417 (Mo. banc), cert. denied, 464 U.S. 908 (1983).
--Psychiatrist appointed to determine Smith's competence to waive federal habeas remedies (as to first case), on next friend petition brought by Smith's brother. See Smith ex rel. Smith v. Armontrout, 604 F. Supp. 840 (W.D. Mo. 1984)
--Execution stayed pending competency determination. See Smith ex rel. Smith v. Armontrout, 626 F. Supp. 936 (W.D. Mo. 1986)
--Petition dismissed upon federal district court's finding that Smith was competent to waive habeas remedies. See Smith ex rel. Smith v. Armontrout, 632 F.Supp. 503 (W.D. Mo. 1986).
--Affirmance of district court's dismissal of next friend habeas petition. See Smith ex rel. Missouri Public Defender Comm'n v. Armontrout, 812 F.2d 1050 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, 483 U.S. 1033 (1987).
--Affirmance of district court's stay of execution issued after Smith elected to pursue federal habeas remedies and revoke his previous forfeiture of such remedies. See Smith v. Armontrout, 825 F.2d 182 (8th cir. 1987).
--District court's subsequent of habeas relief on the merits by Smith v. Armontrout, 692 F. Supp. 1079 (W.D. Mo. 1988).
--Appeal of district court's denial of habeas relief dismissed upon finding that Smith did not authorize the appeal and wished to be executed. See Smith v. Armontrout, 857 F.2d 1228 (8th Cir. 1988)
--Stay of both sentences granted by Smith v. Armontrout, 865 F.2d 1515 (8th Cir. 1988).
--Affirmance of district court's denial of habeas relief on the merits (as to first case). See Smith v. Armontrout, 888 F.2d 530 (8th Cir. 1989).
AS TO SECOND CASE:
--Conviction and sentence affirmed on direct appeal (as to second case) by State v. Smith, 756 S.W.2d 493 (Mo. banc 1988), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 1019 (1989).
Significant legal issues:
--Competence of Smith to waive federal habeas remedies
--Colorable possibility of actual innocence as to the first murder
--Effectiveness of trial counsel as to decision not to admit evidence of Smith's previous hospital confinement for mental problems
--Constitutionality of aggravating circumstance that murder was "outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible or inhuman"
--Trial counsel's stipulation that Smith wrote an incriminating letter to a newspaper, and failure to elicit evidence that the letter's contents were intended to be a joke
--Striking of equivocating Witherspoon jurors (second case)
--Prosecutor's argument in second case that Smith had been sentenced to death in the first case