Campaign for Freedom

Michael D. Smith – Police Frame-Up Victim
27 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit

• In early 1980 Michael D. Smith was charged with three separate murders: Russell Diggs, Lawrence Foster, and Maurice Dukes. 
• Only one conviction for one of these murders still stands.  The state dropped the charges in one case when it was clear that one of their witnesses was lying.  The courts threw out the other on the grounds that the state had improperly used hearsay testimony to give credibility to an incredible statement by one of these key witnesses.
• The only evidence against Smith in all three cases was the same: testimony from gang members, since repudiated under oath, in exchange for leniency from police and prosecutors.  Yet Michael Smith remains under an 80 year sentence for one of these crimes.
• Leon Moore and Derrick Potts testified against Smith at the trials for the Diggs and Dukes murders. Both Moore and Potts have subsequently sworn that they perjured themselves before the grand jury and in Smith’s two trials.  They swear that Darryl Moore (no relation to Leon Moore), a leader of the Black Gangster Disciples threatened to harm them and their families if they did not lie against Smith. Darryl Moore, Leon Moore and Derrick Potts all state that they were pressured by police to frame Michael Smith in exchange for leniency regarding other charges, and in some cases, threats that they would be charged with one or more of these murders.

To find out more about Mike Smith's case, please click here

National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression
1325 S. Wabash Ave. Ste 105 Chicago IL 60605 312-939-2750

Men & Women In Prison Ministries
10 West 35th Street, # 9C5-2
Chicago, IL. 60616
(312) 328-9610