The Mississippi Supreme Court has upheld the previous commitment of Dr. Arnold Smith to a state mental hospital.
Smith was involuntarily committed to the Mississippi State Hospital at Whitfield in January 2015, after he was found not competent to stand criminal trial on charges of capital murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
The former Greenwood oncologist was released for outpatient treatment late last year. He currently resides in Jackson in the custody of his wife, Mary.
Attorney General Jim Hood represented the state in the civil commitment hearings that ultimately sent Smith to Whitfield.
Criminal charges against Smith, were the result of an alleged assassination attempt that led to the 2012 shooting death of Keaira Byrd of Greenwood at Lee Abraham’s downtown law office on Market Street.
Byrd was believed by Abraham and investigators from the Attorney General’s Office to have been a hit man hired to kill Abraham on Smith’s behalf.
When Byrd came to Abraham’s office that night, he was killed by one of the attorney general’s investigators. Smith was charged with the murder and resided in the Leflore County Jail until his commitment to the state hospital.
Abraham was not injured in the shooting
Smith’s attorneys appealed the Leflore County and Hinds County chancery courts’ commitment proceedings, arguing that the case should have been dismissed. They claimed there was insufficient evidence that Smith was a person with a mental illness who presented a danger to himself or others, and they said expert testimony suggested Smith could have been treated safely as an outpatient.
The Smith appeal also objected to Hood’s participation in the commitment proceedings, arguing Hood should have been disqualified because he had a personal interest in seeing Smith put away.
“The Attorney General had (and to this day has) a personal interest in the outcome of the proceedings involving Dr. Smith, because Dr. Smith is charged with the murder that was perpetrated and covered up by the Attorney General, his investigators and the Attorney General’s friend Lee Abraham,” the brief filed by Smith’s attorney, William Bell, said.
Hood filed the state’s response, arguing that the chancery courts’ decision was sound and legally made, and that accusations of his conflict of interest in the case were unfounded.
Although the criminal case against Smith has been put on indefinite hold, a lawsuit brought against him by Abraham, alleging the murder conspiracy compromised the attorney’s quality of life, is set for trial in late October in Lowndes County.
At a recent hearing in Leflore County Circuit Court, attorneys for Smith overcame Abraham’s objection to allowing Michael Levine to testify in the case as an expert witness for the defense.
Levine is an investigator hired by the Smith team who theorized that Byrd’s death was the result of a botched sting operation, instigated by the Attorney General’s office with Abraham’s assistance.
•Contact Kathryn Eastburn at 581-7235 or keastburn@gwcommonwealth.com.
