Freed Death Row Inmate Loses Civil Suit

Police and prosecutors did not violate the civil rights of a former high school principal by withholding evidence that might have cleared him in the slayings of a teacher and her two children, a federal jury ruled Friday.

Jay C. Smith was sent to death row after his 1986 conviction, but in 1992, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned it, citing prosecutorial misconduct. The state was barred from retrying Smith.

Smith, 70, sued for monetary damages for the six years he spent on death row for the 1979 killing.

After the verdict, Smith said he was not upset and that having the chance to challenge his prosecutors in court “was a victory.”

Smith’s attorney, Gerald Williams, said he plans to appeal.

Deputy Atty. Gen. Greg Neuhauser, who represented the state in the civil trial, called the verdict “a vindication of the prosecution.”

The verdict capped a 10-day trial that focused on the slaying of Susan Reinert, 37, an English teacher at Upper Merion High School in suburban Philadelphia, and her two children.

A central issue in the civil trial was two minuscule rock particles that were found on Reinert’s feet but were not turned over by state police to prosecutors or defense attorneys until 1988.

Smith contended the particles were sand, which he says supports his claim that Reinert was killed at the New Jersey shore by another teacher, William S. Bradfield Jr. The state argued that the particles are quartz that could have come from anywhere and that there was more than enough evidence to convict Smith.