Page 9 - Smitty Smith News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

>> out of the two people, which would had the best training and the ability of doing explosive work? holley said that smitty had that experience from his time in the military. >> narrator: karl holley described how he carried out the hit with smitty. >> holley and smith went to jacksonville and met with another biker who provided the c-4. he brought out a three-foot stick of the explosive, they cut off a foot of it and they started a continuous drive to new orleans to conduct the hit. they went back to collins' house that night. smith said, drop me off and pick me up in a few minutes, i'll tak...

>> announcer: after smitty was exonerated, prosecutors dropped all charges against his alleged accomplice, a still-missing yankee. but smitty was now a marked man. >> after being acquitted for the murders in ft. lauderdale, i had people with badges saying that they were going to get me off the street one way or the other. >> announcer: a few months later, police told smitty he could come to the station house to pick up his personal items from the investigation. >> well, i'm in the office signing for the property. i look up and i've got about ten cops coming up behind me. i said, "you got to be...

Tampa, the federal jury, that he's been in prison for 12 years, thereby telling them, oh, this is a bad dude, he's done bad stuff. we asked the judge, we need to tell the jury that he's been acquitted and the judge said, no, because that's hearsay. how is it that the government can say he's been in prison for 12 years and we're not allowed to say, yeah, yeah, he was in prison for 12 years for a crime that we acquitted him of. i mean it just made no sense to me. >> narrator: the government also had a surprise witness, smitty's missing ex-wife, bridgett. >> she was sprung on us, and all of this ...

You join any organization that would call themselves outlaws?" i mean, "does that mean you're a criminal?" and he said -- >> outlaws is not a criminal organization. ever since i returned from vietnam, i have been an outlaw to society. i just felt i didn't fit into society anymore. >> this is something that he was testifying from the heart. and when he said that, you could really hear a pin drop in the courtroom. >> announcer: procedures couldn't shake smitty on the stand and failed to present a motive for why he would have committed the murders. after a week-long trial, the jury found smitty n...

Die or go to prison for the rest of my life, on the other handy make up a story against smitty, who i didn't like, which one am i going to do? >> narrator: in 1990, smitty caught a break when the u.s. supreme court ruled that improper jury instructions had been given in many new orleans' trials. smitty was granted a new trial. clive and tom now had a chance to challenge the state's case. >> what i think became very clear when you saw the whole picture of all of these statements, the major informants in the case had just made it up and they were the ones who did the murder. >> now, there's nowh...