By C1 Staff
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Kentucky’s longest-serving inmate, Willie Smith, saw a light at the end of the tunnel – that is, up until a local legal expert start speaking out against his potential medical parole.
WKYT reports that Smith, now 76, has been jailed for 54 years for the murder of a Lexington gas station clerk in 1960; he claims he was forced by police to confess.
His co-defendant was released more than 30 years ago. Smith has been denied parole more than 10 times.
Louisville Defense Attorney Ted Shouse said that medical parole could be Smith’s ticket out of prison, but Fayette Commonwealth Attorney Ray Larson doesn’t agree with the idea.
“After 54 years everybody seems to have forgotten that this guy and his co-defendant snuffed a life out,” Larson said. “Give me a break. Now, if this Delahanty guy or Ed Monahan, they want him to get out, they ought to take him home with them. That’s a good idea. Why don’t they take him home with them.”
Kentucky lawmakers approved the program to let out some infirmed inmates provided that they aren’t sex offenders or on death row. Smith was declared insane in 1963.