RAMSEY – The confessed killer of a high school cheerleader 60 years ago, who won five years of freedom by duping conservative commentator William F. Buckley Jr., has died in a California prison.
Conservative commentator William F. Buckley Jr. took up Smith’s cause about 10 years after the murder, writing a sympathetic profile of the killer in Esquire magazine.
Buckley helped Smith obtain top-notch lawyers who eventually won the convict’s release from prison in 1971 after a plea bargain, according to the report.
In an interview with Buckley, Smith claimed he had agreed to the plea bargain only to get off death row and out of prison, the report said.
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