Dr. Arnold Smith’s petition to recuse Supreme Court Justice James W. Kitchens has been denied by the Mississippi Supreme Court.
Also dismissed was Smith’s petition for review of his case under the Structural Error Standard. A structural error argument must show not only errors in the prosecution of a case but evidence that those errors significantly prejudiced the outcome in court. The error in question is unknown as Smith’s court files are currently sealed from public view.
On Aug. 11, the Supreme Court handed down orders to deny the two filings from Smith, one filed in Leflore Chancery Court and one in Circuit Court.
Smith, a 74-year old former Greenwood oncologist, was charged with capital murder and conspiracy to commit murder in 2012 for allegedly masterminding a murder-for-hire scheme against Greenwood attorney Lee Abraham. A shootout at Abraham’s law office ended in the death of Keaira Byrd, the man allegedly hired to assassinate Abraham. The shot came from Larry Ware, an agent from Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood’s office, hired to investigate the murder-for-hire plot.
Criminal proceedings against Smith came to an abrupt halt in 2014 when he was declared mentally unfit to stand trial and was committed to the state mental hospital at Whitfield, where he has lived since.
A volley of lawsuits have been filed since the initial criminal case, including a civil suit by Abraham for damages, Smith’s bankruptcy filing in federal court, and Smith accusing Hood and the Mississippi Department of Mental Health in a lawsuit of confining him in an attempt to cover up the actual circumstances of Byrd’s death.
Smith most recently filed a complaint in Hinds County Circuit Court on June 27, arguing that Hood should be removed from office.
Derrick Lacy, who accompanied Byrd to Abraham’s office on the night Byrd was killed, and Cordarious Robinson, accused as a co-conspirator in the case, are still awaiting trial.
• Contact Kathryn Eastburn at 581-7235 or keastburn@gwcommonwealth.com.
