GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — A man who has spent 24 years behind bars in the death of his 2-month-old son was granted bond Tuesday while the state appeals the ruling that threw out his conviction.
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Gwinnett County Superior Court Judge Kimberly Gallant set bond at $100,000 for Danyel Smith, 51, weeks after she threw out his 2003 murder conviction and ordered a new trial.
The district attorney’s office has appealed, and his lawyers said that typically takes about a year.
The bond does not clear Smith. He faces the same murder charge and is presumed innocent.
“He’s been trying to fight this conviction for 24 years and now he has that chance,” said Mark Loudon-Brown, an attorney with the Southern Center for Human Rights.
A jury convicted him after prosecutors said he shook his son, Chandler, to death in 2002.
His attorneys successfully argued for a new trial by stating the medical science behind that diagnosis has shifted and that the baby died of a seizure linked to his premature birth.
His attorneys told Gallant on Tuesday that Smith is no danger and no flight risk. Across 24 years in six state prisons, they said, he never received a single disciplinary report.
“That’s something like 8,500 days in prison following every single rule he was asked to,” Loudon-Brown said.
Assistant District Attorney Lauren McCauley said Smith lied to police in 2002 about putting Chandler in a car seat and asked the boy’s mother to repeat that account.
She said that when he saw the baby was pale, he pulled over and started CPR rather than call 911.
“Charges of murder involving a small infant child justify a denial of bond on the charges themselves,” McCauley said.
As she moved deeper into the trial record, Gallant cut in, telling McCauley she was using the old evidence to argue Smith would be convicted again and would run. She granted bond anyway.
She ordered home confinement and an ankle monitor, fitted before release and paid for by Smith.
He can leave only for medical appointments and to meet with his lawyers, and any violation goes to the district attorney’s office immediately, day or night.
Gallant also barred any contact with Chandler’s mother or her immediate family.
Smith’s family wept as she ruled then spilled into the hallway praying aloud.
The child’s mother left without speaking to reporters, visibly disappointed. Prosecutors submitted a written statement from her rather than call her to testify.
Outside the courtroom, Smith’s fiancee, Tasha Pyatt, said the ruling settles nothing about what the family lost.
“Danyel can’t get back his 24 years. Chandler can’t come back here,” Pyatt said. “Nobody wins.”
Smith’s attorneys told the court he would live with Pyatt at her home in Clayton County. She said she offered up the equity in her house to cover whatever the judge set.
“This is the first time where we can actually be in our home and not be watched,” she said.
His attorneys expect him out of the Gwinnett County Jail within a day or two, once the monitor is fitted. No trial date is set while the appeal is pending.
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