Father who spent decades in prison for baby’s death granted bond, waiting new trial

State officials have argued that Smith’s 2-month-old son, Chandler, died by shaken baby syndrome in 2002. For years, Smith’s defense team had pushed to retry the case and present new evidence. On July 21, Gallant granted Smith’s extraordinary motion for a new trial.

By Aug. 20, state prosecutors filed a notice of appeal to the Supreme Court of Georgia to contest the decision to grant a new trial. Smith’s attorney, Mark Loudon-Brown, then filed a motion for bond pending appeal, court documents show.

“At the outset, Mr. Smith has a statutory right to bail pending the State’s appeal,” the motion read.

In the motion for bond, Loudon-Brown wrote that Smith has maintained a close relationship with his two adult sons and has a “devoted” fiancee living in the metro Atlanta area, where he can reside.

Gwinnett prosecutors offered Smith the opportunity to walk out of prison in 2023 on the condition he admit to killing the child. He rejected the deal, saying he refused to admit to something he did not do.

His case is among a number of convictions embroiled in a national debate over shaken baby deaths. There have been numerous exonerations because of scientific advances that have shifted how the medical community diagnoses the condition, now called abusive head trauma.

Smith’s lawyers and several medical experts who reviewed Chandler’s records have suggested the infant likely died from natural causes brought on by seizures and his premature birth, not violent shaking.

In 2003, during Smith’s trial, the pediatric neurosurgeon who saw Chandler at the children’s hospital said he believed it was shaken baby syndrome.

“I’ll be happy if somebody can tell me something else,” Dr. William Boydston said on the stand, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported.

In July, upon granting Smith a new trial, the judge in her ruling said she found Smith’s new lawyers presented a compelling alternative to the state’s version of events.

“Mr. Smith’s newly presented medical and scientific evidence provides a nonabusive explanation for Chandler’s death,” Gallant said.

That alternative explanation ― which was corroborated by three pathologists, a radiologist and a pediatric neurosurgeon ― “is so material that it would probably produce a different verdict” at trial, Gallant wrote.

Gwinnett prosecutors previously argued against a new trial, saying Chandler’s brain injuries were consistent with abuse.

Smith’s case had previously been appealed twice to the Georgia Supreme Court, including in 2025. In a unanimous opinion, the court ruled now-retired Judge Ronnie Batchelor did not apply the appropriate legal framework when he denied Smith’s motion for a new trial based on scientific advances.

― Staff writer Shaddi Abusaid contributed to this story.