Former Alabama Football Player Heads To Murder Trial In Barbour County
Rickey StokesViewed: 10750
Posted by: RStokes
Date: Jan 14 2015 4:44 PM
From The Henry County Reporter
CLAYTON – This morning in a Barbour County courtroom, former Alabama football player Will Dickerson heads to an unexpected hearing. In the strange world of Circuit Court Judge Burt Smithart, Dickerson has been kept in jail for over three years and denied bail, despite having a clean record and no record of violence before the accusation against him. Oddly no one apparently knows what the hearing is about, especially… the defendant, Will Dickerson himself. It is our understanding the court and prosecutor refused to inform the him of its subject.
I checked with both a retired federal judge and a law professor at the law school I attend, and without any debate, Dickerson constitutionally has the right to know what the hearing is about and he was clearly denied access to that information. This occurs as he continues what has been a long struggle for justice, in what is perceived by many in the county to be a conspiracy against a black man who dated a white woman who worked with, and had personal relations with officials of the court. They were both staunchly against interracial relations being allowed, one ( who’s girlfriend Dickerson had an affair with) feeling that,
the fires of eternal hell await a white woman who date a black man”.
This court official’s wife was later notified by Dickerson of the previous long term affair he had been having with the young woman and that he would not leave the couple alone, was stalking them, using contacts in law enforcement to have them repeatedly stopped and asked for her assistance in intervening.
What is not opinion but irrefutable fact in this case is Judge Burt Smithart and Barbour County District Attorney Ben Reeves thus far have exhibited highly questionable conduct for denying Dickerson access to the full discovery files for his case, and have prevented Dickerson, who at times had no attorney after spending years in jail, from filing any motions or to view the evidence they have against him. Below is a copy of the court order that was violated by Ben Reeves and Dickerson’s previous attorneys on August 27th, 2013, where Dickerson was denied this right to inspect the evidence the state planned to use against him. Additionally his attorneys refused to inform him of the order itself and denied his request to be present.
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