DA Smith Not Guilty, Refers to Case as ‘Modern-Day Emmett Till’

JACKSON — A Rankin County jury deliberated for nearly four hours before announcing its final decision for Hinds County District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith’s most recent trial, this one for charges of aggravated stalking and robbery stemming from an incident with an ex-girlfriend at his mobile home in Pearl, Miss., in 2015.

Eight white women and four white men found Smith not guilty of robbery, but they could not make up their minds on the aggravated stalking charge, leaving the door open for Attorney General Jim Hood’s office to retry that charge—something the attorneys there have not yet decided.

Before the jury’s foreman announced the verdict, lawyers in the courtroom reminded the audience not to react to the results. But soon after Judge William Chapman released the jury and complimented the attorneys for a well-tried case and remaining professional, a teary-eyed Smith embraced his family and hugged his legal team.

Michael Sterling of Atlanta, one of Smith’s defense lawyers, ushered the district attorney into the lobby to further elaborate their sentiments about the trial. Both men spoke with tears in their eyes. Smith said he was pleased about the verdict, despite the attorney general’s office’s third attempt to get charges to stick to Smith in the last two years.

“Other people were constantly trying to build a case against me, behind my back, all the time just over and over again,” Smith told reporters. “It’s just unbelievable how people abuse power and try to do a modern-day Emmett Till. That’s what I call it. I call it a modern-day Emmett Till.”

Smith felt the attorney general’s office unsuccessfully tried to “use the citizens of Rankin County to do their dirty work.”

Racial Bias in Jury Selection?

Attorney Sterling elaborated on Smith’s statements. He told reporters that the prosecuting attorneys excused every African American that had been on the jury who had not been disqualified for cause during jury selection on Sept. 10. Sterling said the defense team raised a Batson challenge, which is an objection to what they saw as the state excluding jurors from the pool based on race.