Kermit Smith Jr. Contents Background See also Sources External links Navigation menuRace of Death Row Inmates Executed Since 1976Offender Data Screenexpanding iteexpanding ite
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North CarolinakidnaprapemurdercheerleaderRoanoke RapidsNorth Carolina Wesleyan CollegeRocky Mount, North CarolinaNorth Carolina State Highway PatrolWeldon, North Carolina
Kermit Smith Jr. (June 7, 1957 – January 24, 1995) was executed by the state of North Carolina for the kidnap, rape, and murder of a 20-year-old college cheerleader. He is one of only a few white criminals since 1976 to have been executed for murdering a black victim.[1]
Contents
1 Background
2 See also
3 Sources
4 External links
Background
About 8:30 PM, December 4, 1980 the 23-year-old Kermit Smith Jr of Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina was taken into custody for the abduction at gunpoint of three cheerleaders and the murder of one of the three after a basketball game around 7:30 PM, Wednesday, December 3, 1980 at North Carolina Wesleyan College in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. He was charged with murder, rape, abduction and armed robbery in Halifax County. Warrants were held in Nash County for kidnap and armed robbery.
The authorities intercepted Smith at the murder scene an abandoned quarry after two of the abductees escaped. The two were picked up on Interstate 95 by a passing motorist who stopped a North Carolina State Highway Patrol officer, who notified local authorities.
The two surviving abductees both 19 years old told officers they we forced at gunpoint into the trunk of the car near Wesleyan’s gymnasium while the girl murdered age 20 was forced to ride in the passenger seat from Rocky Mount to Weldon, North Carolina.[2]
Remembered by classmates as strange, harmless but intelligent (as far as school work). Kermit Smith was pushed around by the other boys who found him a nuisance. [3]
Sentenced to death on Wednesday, April 29, 1981 in Halifax County, North Carolina, Kermit Smith responded to reporters that he had regrets for his brutal actions but did not understand the significance of those actions. He further stated he was not particularly ready to die but faced with spending the rest of his life in prison he preferred the alternative. In addition to death, he was sentenced to 40 years for rape and 10 years for robbery while facing other charges in Nash County.
[4]
In 1982, Kermit Smith was sentenced in Nash County, North Carolina as part of a plea bargain to 25 years in prison for the kidnappings.[5]
See also
- List of individuals executed in North Carolina
- Capital punishment in the United States
Sources
^ Race of Death Row Inmates Executed Since 1976
^ https://www.newspapers.com/image/337157110
^ https://www.newspapers.com/image/337442581
^ https://www.newspapers.com/image/337440945
^ https://www.newspapers.com/image/337449152
- Jon Sorenson and Donald Wallace, "Prosecutorial Discretion in Seeking Death: An analysis of Racial disparity in the Pretrial Stages of Case Processing in a Midwestern county", Justice Quarterly 16 (1999): 559-578.
- The Evening Telegram of Rocky Mount, December 5, 1980
- The Evening Telegram of Rocky Mount, May 4, 1981
- The Evening Telegram of Rocky Mount, May 1, 1981
- The Evening Telegram of Rocky Mount, June 22, 1982
External links
Offender Data Screen from North Carolina Department of Correction
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