In 2023, Danyel Smith turned down a chance at freedom.
Convicted 20 years earlier in the shaken-baby death of his 2-month-old son, Chandler, he would have been allowed to walk out of prison in exchange for a guilty plea. But Smith rejected the deal offered by Gwinnett County prosecutors, saying he refused to “admit to something he did not do.”
Smith, who was sentenced to life in prison, could get a new trial as Georgia’s highest court considers the case.
Gwinnett man refuses to exchange his freedom for guilty plea
Smith’s attorneys and experts who reviewed Chandler’s medical records suggest the child likely died from natural causes brought on by seizures and his premature birth, not violent shaking . They asked the Georgia Supreme Court on Tuesday for a new trial. Prosecutors asked the court to uphold the conviction…