Danks: Hood can't indict district attorney
The state attorney general's office doesn't have the authority to seek an indictment against Hinds County District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith, says the attorney for his co-defendant, Assistant DA Jamie McBride.
Not only is the indictment against McBride unsubstantiated, attorney Dale Danks said, it's illegal.
Danks argues in his motion to quash McBride's indictment filed Wednesday that the attorney general's office failed to prove that McBride committed the crime of which he's accused.
A Hinds County grand jury indicted McBride and Smith on Sept. 7 on felony charges that the two conspired to hinder prosecution of a criminal defendant named Christopher Butler.
"The crime of hindering prosecution requires the state to prove that the person charged with committing the crime 'renders criminal assistance to the other person.' Nowhere in the indictment in the within cause is it alleged that co-defendant, Jamie K. McBride, ever rendered criminal assistance to Christopher Butler or any other person," Danks wrote.
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Danks also suggested his client should not be held responsible for decisions Smith makes on how to proceed with cases.
"How and in what manner District Attorney Smith chooses to prosecute criminal cases indicted by his office is left to his sole discretion," Danks wrote.
Danks also said that in the grand scheme of things, the attorney general is not Smith's boss and "he has no authority over him."
"The Mississippi attorney general has no legal interest in how District Attorney Smith prosecutes his cases. To allow the Mississippi attorney general to indict Hinds County District Attorney Smith, and his Assistant District Attorney McBride, solely because the Mississippi attorney general would handle the prosecution of the aforementioned cases differently would be improper," Danks wrote.
Contact Anna Wolfe at 601-961-7326 or awolfe@gannett.com. Follow @ayewolfe on Twitter.