Smith and Bradfield

Dr. Jay C. Smith was sentenced to death in 1985 for the 1979 murder of Susan Reinert and the presumed murder of her two children. Smith was the principal of Upper Merion Area High School (in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania) for 12 years and Reinert was an English teacher there. Reinert's fiancé, William Bradfield, was also a teacher at the same school and he was convicted in 1983 of conspiracy to commit the same murders, as he was named beneficiary of Reinert's life insurance.

Susan Reinert's murder

Reinert was last seen alive driving away from her Ardmore home with her two children at 9:20 p.m. on Friday, June 22 1979.

Her lifeless body was found in her car in a Harrisburg parking lot Monday morning and her two missing children are presumed dead. An autopsy revealed that she was badly beaten 24 to 36 hours before her death and that she died early Sunday morning from an injection of morphine. It also revealed that she had sand between her toes implying she could have visited a beach area like Cape May, New Jersey. Her car contained written directions to an area just north of Cape May.

Bradfield's alibi

Bradfield had an alibi from 11:15 p.m. Friday on, when he got together with three friends, reputable fellow high school teachers, and left with them to spend the weekend in Cape May, New Jersey. The prosecution did not believe that he could have traveled to Harrisburg during this period and it was alleged that Bradfield had employed Smith as Reinert's killer.Fact|date=July 2008 In 1985 Smith was convicted of murdering Reinert and her two children.

Smith's trial and later exoneration

At Smith's trial, the prosecutor did not call Bradfield as a witness, but instead called a series of witnesses who recounted their recollections of what Bradfield had said. The judge allowed this hearsay testimony after the prosecutor assured him that the state attorney general found that such testimony was allowed under the law.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned Smith's conviction in 1992 because the judge permitted hearsay testimony, the police withheld evidence that sand was found between Reinert's toes, and five state troopers perjured themselves on this point. The troopers did not want Smith's jury to hear about the sand as it allowed the defense to argue that Reinert had been in Cape May and that Bradfield had personally killed her. The Court found the prosecution's conduct so egregious that it broke new legal ground and barred a retrial.

Investigator misconduct

Chief Investigator, Trooper John J. Holtz, later admitted having accepted $50,000 from author Joseph Wambaugh. The money was provided on the condition that suspect Jay Smith be arrested.Fact|date=February 2008Fact|date=July 2008

Bradfield's conspiracy conviction

Smith's exoneration should have undermined Bradfield's conspiracy conviction on the basis of insufficient evidence.Fact|date=July 2008 At Bradfield's trial, there was no direct evidence that he conspired with Smith, but without Smith, there is not even circumstantial evidence that he conspired with anyone.

Evidence that the authorities were duped by Bradfield

Despite his excellent alibi, evidence suggests that Bradfield orchestrated Reinert's murder and tried to frame Smith for it. Bradfield had warned associates that the evil Dr. Smith planned to kill Reinert for some time before the murder. Smith had been earlier convicted of robbing a Sears store, by posing as an armored car driver to collect the day's receipts.

Smith was due to be sentenced and imprisoned the same day and in the same city that Reinert's body was found, so it seemed that Bradfield used his last opportunity to kill Reinert and throw suspicion on Smith. It seems doubtful that Smith, who had no motive for killing Reinert, would drive her car with her dead body to Harrisburg, then return home and drive his own car to his sentencing.

Bradfield died in prison in 1998. The case is the subject of three books, "Echoes in the Darkness", by Joseph Wambaugh, "Engaged to Murder", by Loretta Schwartz-Nobel, and "Principal Suspect", by Smith's trial and appeal attorney, William Costopoulos. The case was also the subject of a TV mini-series, based on Wambaugh's book and sharing the same title.

References

*"Principal Suspect" by William Costopoulos
*"Echoes in the Darkness" by Joseph Wambaugh

External links

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