Lawyers for Alleged Detroit Hitman Want 'I Kill People for Money' Confessions Thrown Out

Hours after detectives arrested Vincent Smothers in a suburban Detroit alley in the spring of 2008, they say, he came out with a stunning confession: "I don't have a profession," he allegedly told an investigator. "I kill people for money." Then, police say, he laid out details of how each of eight hired hits happened. He stalked his victims before shooting them at close range. He killed some while talking on his cell phone and fired on others even when they appeared to lay lifeless on the ground. Even in Detroit, which had more than 300 slayings last year, Smothers' case is notable: Rarely is one person charged in so many deaths.

Police say Smothers confessed to murders on Detroit's impoverished east side from 2006 until the end of 2007, with the last alleged hit coming on Dec. 26, 2007. Now, his lawyers want these shocking confessions thrown out, planning on Friday to ask a judge to have them tossed on the grounds that Smothers was worn down while in custody.Police deny it.

I don't see anything in the article that would get them thrown out. Assuming he was Mirandized and they didn't refuse his request for an attorney, of course, and I sure hope they weren't that sloppy. It looks like this is about the only play his lawyers have, though. If these confessions get in, the DA won't have much reason to cut him a deal. He's showing contrition now, but it's a tad late for that. Whatever forgiveness he gets now will probably be solely between himself and his Maker.

CADE
Be brave, then; for your captain is brave, and vows
reformation. There shall be in England seven
halfpenny loaves sold for a penny: the three-hooped
pot; shall have ten hoops and I will make it felony
to drink small beer: all the realm shall be in
common; and in Cheapside shall my palfrey go to
grass: and when I am king, as king I will be,--

ALL
God save your majesty!

CADE
I thank you, good people: there shall be no money;
all shall eat and drink on my score; and I will
apparel them all in one livery, that they may agree
like brothers and worship me their lord.

DICK
The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.

CADE
Nay, that I mean to do. Is not this a lamentable
thing, that of the skin of an innocent lamb should
be made parchment? that parchment, being scribbled
o'er, should undo a man? Some say the bee stings:
but I say, 'tis the bee's wax; for I did but seal
once to a thing, and I was never mine own man
since.

- Henry VI, Part 2, Act IV, Scene 3

It helps to put that famous and popular line in context sometimes. Sounds like Shakespeare's character wants to kill all the lawyers in order to destroy property and contract rights and usher in a socialist utopia - or, in other words, to do exactly what Obama's trying to do. Makes you think, huh?

Smothers' lawyers are doing their jobs. For the time being, we live in a country where your rights can't be arbitrarily taken away just because you've been accused of a crime, no matter how damning the evidence, and I for one am grateful for that. The criminal defense lawyer's job (and this one may well have been appointed by the court to do this job) is to help assert those rights.

You may not like it, and some times neither do I, but its a damn sight better than letting police and prosecutors jail anyone they please. Fighting crime is important, but individual liberty is always more important. If I didn't believe that, I'd move to China, where they have a much more efficient criminal "justice" system.

Have you seen US schools lately? Half the graduates don't know how to read. What makes you so sure they did learn their rights in school? Frankly, in my experience even the relatively educated tend to be shockingly ill informed about their rights.

I don't think Miranda is the best Supreme Court decision either, but is it really that huge a burden for a police officer who wants to place a free citizen in custody to read him a few lines off a card and inform him of rights that he may or may not be aware of? At the very least, it help keep the police honest. They aren't all saints, after all. Smothers was hired by a cop for his last hit.

Another way of asking your question is "How many murderers are walking the streets because a cop screwed around on the job and did something he shouldn't have?"

That’s certainly what it looks like. Like I said, I don’t see anything there that will get the confession thrown out. It’s the lawyer’s job to try, though, and I don’t have a problem with that. It doesn’t look like the police did anything untoward, but I’m not willing to just assume that, and neither should the law. That’s why we have the system we have.

It helps to put that famous and popular line in context sometimes. Sounds like Shakespeare's character wants to kill all the lawyers in order to destroy property and contract rights and usher in a socialist utopia - or, in other words, to do exactly what Obama's trying to do. Makes you think, huh?

AMEN! It really burns my biscuits every time that quote is taken out of context to imply that lawyers, who know and understand the operation law, should be taken to task for using that knowledge to satisfy their DUTY of zealous representation of their clients.

Dick, a villain here, is advocating removing those who know how the law works so that nobody will call them on their illegal activities. Remember that context whenever somebody spouts that "kill all the lawyers" nonsense.

Context is everything.

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