A notorious Florida gang leader who was convicted in the deaths of six people managed to dodge capital punishment after spending 20 years on condemned row, say reports.
John Doe drug gang boss Corey Smith, 52, learned his life would be spared Sunday following the release of a series of problematic texts between the current Miami-Dade state attorney and then lead-prosecutor Bronwyn Miller, according to the Miami Herald.
Miller, now an appellate judge in the 3rd District Court, seemingly pressured Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle about how to prosecute the case as it moved through the re-sentencing phase following several changes to the state's death penalty law.
"Compelled to re-sentence because of court decisions, with the passage of time, and taking all these factors into consideration, we do not feel we have a sufficiently compelling case for a death penalty presentation to jurors," the state attorney's office admitted in a statement obtained by the paper.
Smith's defense attorney, Allison Miller, confessed while her client is "complicated," he is still more "good than bad."
"Frankly, he is one of the most generous and certainly smartest clients I have ever had," she said, according to the outlet. "And he is an integral part of his family unit and has raised his son from prison."
Earlier this year, Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Andrea Ricker Wolfson removed prosecutors Michael Von Zamft and Stephen Mitchell after it was revealed Von Zamft and a state's witness participated in unethical phone calls with a jail snitch, the paper reported.
In 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered Smith's retrial after it deemed Florida's capital punishment law – allowing non-unanimous juries to sentence defendants to death – unconstitutional. Smith was handed down the death penalty in 2004 for the murders of Cynthia Brown, Angel Wilson, Leon Hadley and Jackie Pope and the manslaughter of Melvin Lipscomb and Marlon Beneby.
In 2023, Gov. Ron DeSantis threw another wrench in the state's death penalty legislation and signed into law a rule that allows two-thirds majority of jurors to send a convict to death row, however resentencing is still necessary.
Smith is due back in court Wednesday.
His defense team is still pushing to get his convictions overturned.
