There will apparently be no trial of the century in the alleged murder-for-hire plot involving Dr. Arnold Smith.
For the second time in a year, specially appointed Judge Breland Hilburn has ruled that the 72-year-old oncologist is too mentally ill to defend himself against charges that could put Smith behind bars for the rest of his life. Hilburn has concluded, based on evidence provided by mental health experts for both the prosecution and the defense, that Smith needs to be committed for his own safety and that of others.
Although those who were looking forward to the spectacle of the trial might be disappointed, the judge clearly made the correct decision in this case.
Anyone in Greenwood who has dealt with Smith in the past knows that the physician suffers from mental illness. His paranoias and delusions have been well-documented in interviews with the Commonwealth as well as letters to the editor, to the governor of Mississippi and to other public officials. He became fixated particularly on one family — attorney Lee Abraham and his brother, Leflore County Chancery Clerk Sam Abraham — as well as former medical partners. He painted conspiracy theories involving them that were so preposterous as to be almost comical.
According to authorities, what seemed for many years like a weird but benign obsession tripped at some point into a violent one, with Smith searching out and hiring amateur hitmen in an unsuccessful plot to assassinate Lee Abraham. The result: a late-night confrontation at Abraham’s Market Street law office in 2012 that resulted in the shooting death of one alleged hitman and the critical wounding of another. The incident had the whole town buzzing and made national news.
There are still questions of what exactly transpired that night. Maybe they will be cleared up if two others accused in the assassination plot, Derrick Lacy and Cordarious Robinson, ever go to trial, or in the still pending civil case against Smith filed by Abraham.
But as far as the doctor himself, it’s now more likely that he will spend his remaining years in a mental institution rather than a penal one. That is the proper and just place to deal with the illness that has been his curse for a long while.
