In a recent podcast appearance alongside former Montgomery Police officer Aaron Cody Smith, who was imprisoned after an on-the-job shooting in 2019, former Supreme Court Justice and candidate for the state's attorney general, Jay Mitchell, spoke on the perceived shortcomings the current AG's office displays with officer-involved shooting prosecutions.
Smith, a former officer with the Montgomery Police Department, was charged with murder after the on-the-job shooting of Greg Gunn.
The shooting occurred on February 25, 2016, and Smith was arrested nearly a week later.
Smith's trial ended in November 2019 with a jury finding him guilty of a lesser charge of manslaughter. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison in January 2020.
SEE: Not a 'bully with a badge': Former Alabama cop charged with murder speaks out from behind bars
In December 2022, the Court granted Smith a "writ of certiorari," asking the Supreme Court to review a prior decision of the Court of Criminal Appeals. The Court quashed Smith's writ, but several justices suggested that Smith's counsel and subsequent conviction may have been questionable.
In the special opinion, Mitchell wrote that it was "difficult to understand how a reasonable, properly instructed jury could have convicted Smith."
Smith later filed a Rule 32 petition, and Attorney General Steve Marshall assumed the prosecution of the case, swiftly reaching a plea agreement with Smith that allowed him to walk free in February 2024.
On the podcast "Shoot me Straight With Dave & Eddie," Mitchell appeared alongside Smith to discuss the case and his role in securing Smith's release, claiming he "sort of drew a map" for Smith's eventual relief in his special opinion.
Mitchell is slated to face current Attorney General Steve Marshall's chief counsel, Katherine Robertson, in the May Republican primary election.
According to Mitchell, Marshall approached him at the Capitol building, claiming his brief motivated the plea deal.
"Before the Governor gave her state of the state address, the attorney general came across the floor and gave me a heads up, 'We're going to try to make a deal with Cody to get him out of prison.' And he said, 'I wanted you to know that because we read your opinion.' And I said, "OK. Good to know."
Mitchel stated he "hated" the terms of Smith's deal because it required him to plead guilty to a felony.
"That really bothered me," Mitchell stated. "Obviously, that's not a role I could play as a judge. That's between the AG's office and Cody and his family."
Mitchell went on to say that, should he be elected, he would convene a law enforcement-led advisory group to get in front of cases like officer-involved shootings to get in front of prosecutions of police officers in those circumstances. He also criticized the current AG's office for its lack of attention to the matter.
"The AG's office has kind of put its head in the sand on a lot of this," Mitchell continued. "Then, when it comes, when maybe there's a conviction, well then the AG's office is responsible for trying to keep the conviction in place. That's what people don't realize: the AG's office was trying to keep Cody in prison. But under state law, the AG's office can come in and take over a case at any point. Even pre-indictment, [it] can come in and take over a case. I think whenever there's a critical incident, like an officer-involved shooting, there's got to be early engagement by the attorney general's office."
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