Page 6 - Smitty Smith News Today

Details that he was able to begin showing the fallacies and the falsehoods in his case, and i had never done an appeal of a capital case. it was terrifying. >> narrator: lorenzi knew he faced an uphill battle, so he enlisted the help of veteran appeals attorney clive stafford smith. >> i had worked on another capital case where i had needed a favor and tom lorenzi had very kindly helped me out. so when tom got roped into smittys case, he called me back and i sort of owed him a favor. >> narrator...

Ft. lauderdale police." yep, told you we was going to get you, and then they extradited me over to new orleans. >> narrator: the fbi believed smitty was behind the murder-for-hire killing of a federal witness named robert collins in 1981. >> robert collins had evidence against what was regarded then as one of the more powerful organized crime families in the united states that allegedly was buying and distributing drugs throughout the gulf coast. >> narrator: the 38-year-old collins had turned s...

People that i could relate to. we had our love for motorcycles, the freedom of the road, came down to fight and raise hell. >> announcer: weeks before smittys 1983 trial, he married his girlfriend bridgett in a jail house ceremony. >> smitty was about to stand trial for his life. if he lost, he had a very good chance of going to death row and he wanted and she wanted to be able to formalize their relationship before that happened. >> i bought a nice dress, did my makeup and hair. to me it was a ...

In 1997 clarence smitty smith was put on trial for rico violations in federal court. and bridget, smittys estranged wife, had returned to testify against him. >> the outlaws told me that wives cant testify against husbands. and to me that was the way to save my life. because until they told me to marry him, i was waiting for one of them to kill me. >> when bridget learned she might be asked to corroborate smittys alibi of bar hopping with yankee the night of the murders, she panicked. >> i decid...

Smitty clearly had a beard. >> not a skinny build by any stretch of the imagination, so it just didnt match up. >> announcer: for corroboration, tenbrook also submitted smittys alibi, turning to smittys wife bridgett who had been working in a topless bar. >> smittys alibi was that he was essentially bar hopping with yankee and some of his other friends, and i listed bridgett as a defense witness because she was with him on the night of the murders. >> but before she was slated to testify and jus...

Trials, including carl holley and penny reed. >> and i said in court that theyve got all of these witnesses who were the informants or the snitches. they were bought and paid-for informants. they had been given $250,000 in cash. they had been forgiven seven death sentences, 12 life sentences and 200,000 years in prison. if i went around and gave a witness $10, i would be indicted for bribing witnesses. >> narrator: smitty was tried in federal court in tampa in 1997 alongside three other outlaws....

Named bridget, and shes naked. >> as i came around the corner, they had him down handcuffing him. i was scared to death. i didnt know what was going on. >> we asked him where yankee might be. he was gone, and we never saw him again. he kind of disappeared. >> and so they searched the house. says, "okay, youre under arrest." and i was taken in to the jail. >> announcer: smitty was charged with four murders and the attempted homicide of penny reed. he would face the death penalty. >> the police sa...

Of federal witness robert collins. >> they used to have tours when i was on the row. it was the old-style bars. make everybody walk on the far side of the wall so you feel like youre the animal in a zoo. dont feed the animals in the zoo. >> narrator: for four years, smitty waited to be assigned an attorney. then in 1989, harley-riding tom lorenzi volunteered to take his case. >> the first time i met smitty, he said, im going to give you my file. it was remarkable. they were the most well-prepare...

Had failed to show a motive for why smitty would kill penny reeds boyfriend grizzly and the others. bridget now filled in the blanks, describing a terrifying encounter with grizzly the night before the murders. >> i was leaving work that night, and i was putting my bag into the van. grizzly come up behind me and pushed me into the van. he hit he, held me down, took out his penis and jacked off on me and said "tell smitty thats for him." when i got home that evening, smitty knew something was wro...

Clive still felt the governments case was a sham, as illustrated by the additional murder they tried to pin on smitty. >> 9 government said through carl hawley that smitty had committed another murder and his getaway driver was another outlaw called junkyard. well, i say to smitty, whos this junkyard? and smitty laughs and says thats the outlaws dog. and it was just a farce. >> after nearly two months of trial smittys jury was deadlocked. typically, this would have resulted in a mistrial and smi...