A judge has granted the request of Forsyth DA Tom Keith that a psychiatrist examine Jill Marker in an effort to determine what she does and does not remember about the day she was brutally beaten.
The judge’s decision didn’t sit too well with the attorneys representing Kalvin Smith, the man who was convicted of the crime and is now serving 22 years in prison:
Attorneys for Smith said yesterday that Keith lined up the neuropsychiatrist and acted without consulting them at a time when he said he wanted to work with them to reinvestigate the case.
“We had nothing to do with the selection of the expert.… We have nothing to do with selecting the areas of the examination or with selecting the questions that will be asked,” Jim Coleman, a faculty adviser to the innocence project, said in an e-mail. “Tom acted unilaterally in setting this up.”
David Pishko, a local lawyer representing Smith, said he learned of Keith’s request less than two hours before a hearing was held before the judge.
“We didn’t object to it; we didn’t consent to it,” Pishko said. “This is entirely the district attorney’s idea, and it was up to the judge whether he wanted the state to pay for it.”
Negotiations for a new trial are continuing.
