The man convicted and sentenced to death in the 2013 murder of an 8-year-old Jacksonville girl will be back in court Tuesday morning for an evidentiary hearing as he continues to push for a new trial.
Donald Smith claims that his counsel was ineffective in his 2018 trial, which ended in his conviction for the rape and murder of Cherish Perrywinkle.
The evidentiary hearing, which begins at 10 a.m., was postponed in December after one of Smith’s three attorneys suddenly resigned.
WATCH: News4JAX will stream the hearing live. Press play above to watch.
Smith was convicted of abducting Cherish in 2013 from a Northside Walmart where he had lured her family with promises of buying Cherish and her sisters clothes. Rayne Perrywinkle, Cherish’s mother, called 911 when she realized Smith had left the store with the 8-year-old, and Smith was arrested on I-95 shortly before the girl’s body was found in a creek.
Belkis Plata, a Jacksonville attorney unaffiliated with the case, was working as a public defender when the Amber Alert for Cherish went out.
“I think everyone was so hopeful that the police would find this little girl and that she would be returned to her family alive and well,” she said. “And it did not happen that way. The tragedy of what happened to her, I think, is what has stuck with people all of these years, knowing what that little girl went through. People want to see justice.”
RELATED: I-TEAM obtains newly-released evidence against Donald Smith
In a 78-page appeal from 2023, Smith’s attorneys argued that many errors were made in his trial that led to the penalty phase where he was sentenced to death. They said that his original conviction wasn’t valid because his former lawyers failed to remove a biased juror and failed to object to a 911 call and “digitally altered photographs.”
During the evidentiary hearings, Smith’s attorneys will call witnesses to the stand and present physical evidence to the judge in hopes of getting Smith a new trial.
Plata said a decision from Tuesday’s hearing could take days or even months. She also said the lengthy appeals process can be painful for the victim’s family.
RELATED: Cherish Perrywinkle: The case that shocked Jacksonville
“A lot of people think that a jury verdict is final. And that brings finality to the case. And that’s just not the case at all, especially not in these types of cases and death penalty cases, the appeals process is extremely long,” she said. “I think the community as a whole felt that loss and stands by the mom in hoping that someday she’ll be able to get closure and really try to move past this.”
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.