In 1987, Aritha Payne lost her only son, Marlin May when Sam Smith fatally stabbed him during a knife fight at the Missouri State Penitentiary.

Aritha Payne and her son Marlin May

Smith, convicted and sentenced to death, is scheduled to be executed late Tuesday night, just after midnight, officially on May 23. You might assume that Payne would be elated or at least relieved with Smith’s pending demise. But you’d wrong.

"What joy is there to see a man killed?" Payne asks. " I know how I felt when I saw my son laying" in a coffin. "There was no hatred, only hurt. It's indescribable. It felt as if a piece of me had died. If in fact, Sam Smith's killed, what would have been resolved? It would just be another dead man," she laments. "They (state officials) are trying to do the same thing to him as he did to my son. Sam has to be forgiven. Murder is murder. If they (officials) pull a lever, injecting poison into him, it's murder too." Concerned about offending some relatives, she had been hesitant until 1999 to speak out on her life-long revulsion to the death penalty. But as the prospect of Smith's execution became more likely, she realized silence was not an option. That year during a discussion on the topic, one relative wondered why Payne, as a caring mother, wouldn't want revenge for her son's death. "'How can you have the heart (to ask for anything less)?,'" she recalls the woman asking. Payne's answer: "'It is because of my heart,'" guided by her Christian faith that commands forgiveness.

She hopes to reach especially the heart of Governor Holden, urging him to consider, "What if this was your child" scheduled for execution? (The governor does have two sons.) "Would he still support the execution?" We with the FOR condemn all killing committed by any person or government; we support nonviolent alternatives to the death penalty which promote healing for victims’ families (although we sadly realize that nothing can fully "close" the wounds inflicted by such a horrible loss). Smith would be the 50th person executed in Missouri since 1989; more than 700 people have been killed in our country since 1977. In Smith’s case, there are other issues worth noting, even if you support state killings:

Stabbing Not Premeditated Murder
According to court records, Smith initially tried to protect another prisoner, Demetrius Herndon, who was being stabbed by others as a result of an incident the previous night. One of the attackers, Marlin May threatened Smith who had obtained a knife by apparently disarming one of the assailants. Both May and Smith stabbed at each other several times, until a guard disarmed May. Smith then nonetheless repeatedly stabbed May more than a dozen times. The prosecution claimed it proved Smith’s murderous, deliberative state.

PTSD Possibility
The jury however, never learned the reason for his fury could have been Smith suffered a "flashback" due to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Four months before this fight, Smith himself had been the victim of a near fatal stabbing and was hospitalized for a week. David Kite, his initial attorney, however, visited Smith just twice before trial and never investigated his PTSD claims.

Incompetent Counsel
Kite had never been lead counsel in any criminal trial and assisted in only one other non-capital trial. Kite was so emotionally devastated by the guilty verdict, he was unable to represent Smith in the penalty phase. That heavy burden fell on two colleagues from his law office who had never even met Smith. After being sentenced to death, Smith voiced dissatisfaction with Kite's representation. Kite filed a notice of appeal, but continued to represent Smith despite the conflict of interest. He filed the transcript of Smith's trial with the Missouri Supreme Court, seven weeks before it was due without informing Smith nor his new court-appointed attorney. His secret action started running a 30-day appeal period which expired without Smith's knowledge, forever closing most avenues for legal argument. A few years later, Kite was disbarred for other unethical behavior.

Mid-Mo FOR home