JACKSONVILLE, Fla — The Florida Supreme Court heard arguments in the case of Donald Smith, currently on death row for the kidnapping, rape and first-degree murder of eight-year-old Cherish Perrywinkle.
Smith's court appointed attorney Richard Kuritz conceded there was overwhelming evidence against his client, but argued that the cumulative effect of multiple errors by the trial judge warranted reversal and a retrial.
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Smith was convicted by a jury in 2018 for the savage 2013 crime. The jury voted 12-0 to recommend death, and the trial court sentenced Smith accordingly. Wednesday's arguments are part of the automatic appeal that follows any death sentence in Florida.
Kuritz said that taken individually, his arguments for reversal "may be weak," but were cumulatively significant. One of his primary arguments was that the medical examiner cried on the stand during testimony, as well as the fact that the judge did not change the trial venue, and allowed graphic autopsy photos to be shown to jurors.
The judges pushed back strenuously on his presentation saying they didn’t understand how given the weight of the evidence the alleged errors would be prejudicial enough to warrant reversing the conviction.
In response to Kuritz’s argument, that the Medical Examiner cried on the stand, Judge Charles Kennedy said tears, even by a professional, might be excusable. “When you have the kidnapping, rape and murder of a young child that’s an emotional thing.”
Kuritz said he anticipated those kinds of arguments.
“I was appointed to the case that I am doing what I can,” he noted.
The attorney for the state, Charmaine Millsaps, said that due to the overwhelming evidence, none of those errors would merit a reversal of the conviction.
She said the complaint that the medical examiner cried on the stand was not accurate. “She was not audibly or visibly crying,” she remarked.
She also said that an emotional response was forgivable because the autopsy photos of the murdered child were by their nature heinous. “
"They are hard to look at.”
