Jay Smith
Jay Smith, a graduate of the University Pennsylvania, was the principal of Upper Merion High School in 1979 when Susan Reinert, a teacher at that school, was murdered. He was sentenced to death in 1986 and spent six years on Pennsylvania’s death row. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned Jay’s conviction in 1992 because the judge in his case permitted hearsay testimony and the police withheld crucial evidence. Jay is the only person to receive a double-jeopardy decision in a capital case. The court asserted that the state’s “misconduct, standing alone, would suffice to implicate the protection of the double jeopardy clause. But further examination of the record establishes the bad faith of the prosecution beyond any possibility of doubt; indeed, it would be hard to imagine more egregious prosecutorial tactics.”
In addition to the unique double-jeopardy question, Jay’s case became the subject of three books and a five-hour television series, Echoes in the Darkness. A payment of more than $100,000 was secretly bestowed on the investigating officers by an author who specified he would not pay them unless they convicted Jay; he claimed he would not have a book to write if Jay was not convicted.
After Jay had been on death row for six years, an extraordinary event occurred. Using the money that he received from the author and as a chief consultant on Echoes in the Darkness, the chief investigator in Jay’s murder case decided to buy a new house. In preparation for his move he chose an antiques dealer, later called the “junkman” in the press, to clean out his attic. The junkman found a box of investigative materials, items in FBI evidence bags, and 25 state police detective notebooks. These notebooks contained more than 1800 pages of notes from the seven-plus years of investigation into Jay’s case.
Instead of taking the box of evidence to the incinerator, as he did with other items, the junkman gave it to a lawyer who revealed its contents to the press and turned everything over to the court. The box contained letters from the author’s bribes, the hidden evidence, evidence of a deal with inmates to have them released from prison for their perjury as witnesses, and a host of other items indicating serious misconduct.
After Jay’s release, William Bradfield, another teacher at Upper Merion High School, was convicted of the murder of Susan Reinert and her children; the children’s bodies were never found. A grand jury recommended two other teachers be indicted in the crime, but they became witnesses against Bradfield and were given immunity for their testimony against him. Bradfield was given three life sentences without parole. He died in prison in 1991.
Jay is retired from the U.S. Army Reserves as a full colonel, and he
lives in
northeastern Pennsylvania, near the New York border. Of his experience, Jay
says, “I am convinced by now God has put me here so I can expose the evil of
the death penalty and the need for reform of the justice system.” Inspired
by the efforts of Sister Helen Prejean, Jay works with Witness to Innocence
to help end the death penalty.