State Attorney’s Office responds to Donald Smith’s push for new trial in Cherish Perrywinkle case
Donald Smith #DonaldSmith
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The State Attorney’s Office has filed a response to the motion for a new trial for the man convicted of killing 8-year-old Cherish Perrywinkle, arguing it should be “summarily denied.”
Investigators found that Donald Smith abducted Perrywinkle by luring her into his van at a Northside Walmart in 2013. Smith was later arrested on Interstate 95 shortly before her body was found in a creek.
A 78-page appeal was filed in April by lawyers for Smith, who was sentenced to death after the case took five years to go to trial. The appeal cited multiple things in his trial that he argues invalidate his original conviction, including:
Claims his lawyer “was ineffective for failing to identify, interrogate and strike a biased juror.”
Also claims that his lawyer didn’t do a good enough job over things like “failure to object to the 911 call” and “failure to object to digitally altered photographs”
Critical of mental health expert who testified that Smith was “the most dangerous pedophile she had ever met”
The SAO said Smith’s lawyers’ claims of ineffective counsel are not valid, conclusively rebutted by the record and meritless as a matter of law.
In response to the grounds that there was no cross-examination of Rayne Perrywinkle, who is Cherish’s mother, the SAO said Smith’s new lawyers can’t claim that was ineffective because trial counsel followed his wishes.
The SAO also said that Smith’s claims regarding the trial counsel being ineffective for not convincing him to concede guilt and go straight to the penalty phase are meritless because he made the decision to reject their advice.
As for the claims that Dr. Heather Holmes’ testimony undermined the defense’s strategy, the SAO said Smith was in full agreement to call her as a witness.
The SAO also pointed out that these agreements for a new trial have already been denied by the Florida Supreme Court.
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