Smith, Kemba

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Kemba Smith

1971—

Social-justice activist

Kemba Smith, who spent six years in federal prison in the 1990s, is an advocate for reform of mandatory-sentencing laws. Her conviction stemmed from a romantic relationship with a drug trafficker. Although federal prosecutors acknowledged they had no evidence that Smith had either used cocaine or sold it, she was sentenced to more than twenty-four years in prison for carrying cash related to drug trafficking and for lying to federal authorities, among other charges. Her prison sentence, which was based on mandatory-sentencing guidelines, was commuted by President Bill Clinton in 2000.

Smith was born in 1971 and grew up in suburban Richmond, Virginia. The only child of an accountant and a schoolteacher, she led a relatively idyllic and sheltered life: Smith attended predominantly white schools; was a Girl Scout; took ballet, gymnastics, and piano lessons; and participated in a debutante event staged by her mother's sorority. After graduating from Hermitage High School, she entered Hampton University in the fall of 1989, where, she later told a reporter, she struggled to fit in. She said her circle of friends grew to include those who had chosen Hampton because of its reputation as a party school, and as she joined in with the drinking and marijuana use, her grades slid downward.

Caught in an Abusive Relationship

Smith began dating Peter Hall during her sophomore year after meeting him at a party. The Jamaican immigrant was eight years her senior and appeared to be well-off financially. "I had seen the other girls Peter had been involved with before," she told Reginald Stuart, a writer who profiled her in Emerge. "They were smart, pretty, dean's list, and I just couldn't believe he went out with me. I had heard he was dealing drugs, but hadn't seen it. I didn't question how he had all these things because it seemed like it was accepted by everybody."

In private, she recounted later, Hall soon revealed himself to be controlling and physically violent. He struck her and even tried to choke her, but then he would beg for her forgiveness and promise never to hit her again. They were living together in September of 1991 when Hall was arrested on state drug charges and for possession of false identification. It was at that point she discovered the full scope of his criminal activity. His brother gave her money to hire a lawyer, who got Hall out of jail. Prosecutors would later allege that the money came from profits the two brothers had earned as part of a multistate cocaine-trafficking ring.

Hall began to elude law-enforcement authorities, which by that time included federal drug agents. When he moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1992, Smith followed him and enrolled at another college. In early 1993 Hall was arrested in New York City with crack cocaine in his possession. According to Smith's account, Hall's associates asked her to take $75,000 in cash to an address in Brooklyn so that he could make bail, and she complied. At her sentencing hearing that action would be introduced as evidence that she had participated in the laundering of drug money.

Drawn into Illegal Activities

Smith later told Stuart that she had attempted to leave Hall on several occasions, but he always persuaded her to stay. At one point, she said, he told her that he and his two partners were going away on a business trip, but he returned with only one of the partners. He asked Smith to meet him Atlanta, where he borrowed her car. He also divulged that he and his partner had killed their third partner because he was talking to the police. Allowing him to use her car would later be used as evidence against her in court.

In the summer of 1993, when she was living at home with her parents, law-enforcement authorities arrived in the middle of the night and took her into custody as a material witness. She said later that because Hall had admitted killing a partner who talked to the police, she thought he or his associates would murder her or her parents, so she deliberately gave authorities false information about Hall's whereabouts. She continued to speak with him by phone, however, and even wired him money. In December of 1993, without telling her parents, she boarded a train to meet Hall in New Orleans. He failed to pick her up at the train station as planned, but later contacted her and told her to meet him in Houston. Thus began an eight-month odyssey that took them to Arizona, California, and finally Seattle, Washington, living on the run and sleeping in bus stations or seedy motels. Smith became pregnant. Exhausted and broke, she persuaded Hall to let her return home.

When she got back to Richmond, Smith's parents informed her there was a federal warrant out for her arrest. She turned herself in on September 1, 1994, and was held without bond. When federal agents questioned her, she again deliberately lied about Hall's whereabouts. Then one night, she recounted later, she had a dream in which Hall had died in her arms. The next morning she asked her attorney to arrange a meeting with prosecutors so she could end the "nightmare." At that meeting federal agents divulged that Hall's body had just been discovered in Seattle; he had been shot in the head before U.S. marshals found him.

Received Long Prison Sentence

Smith pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to distribute cocaine, lying to federal authorities, and conspiracy to launder drug money. While she was awaiting sentencing, she gave birth to a son. "I had two days with him before giving him to my parents," Smith told People. "I didn't sleep, because I did not want to miss any time with him."

At the sentencing hearing, experts testified that Smith's behavior was characteristic of those afflicted by so-called battered-woman syndrome, a condition in which women are unable to free themselves from abusive relationships because of psychological manipulation. However, the charges brought against Smith were covered by mandatory-sentencing laws, which allow little room for judicial discretion. An advocate for Smith pointed out that her actions had been taken "under coercion and duress," factors that, according to the law, would allow the judge to apply a lower mandatory sentence. U.S. District Judge Richard B. Kellam was not persuaded. "The law is the law," he told the packed courtroom, adding "I am not willing to say that her actions and conduct were controlled by her love for Peter Hall or her fear of Peter Hall. It went on for too long a period of time for that to have existed." Even though she had no prior criminal record, he sentenced her to twenty-four years and six months in federal prison.

The mandatory-sentencing guidelines were enacted in the 1980s as part of the U.S. government's highly publicized war on drugs. They were intended to ensure fairness in the justice system, but have been criticized for creating wide disparities instead. Statistics show, for example, that under the mandatory-sentencing law those convicted of using or selling crack cocaine—a cheaper form of the drug that is favored by users in impoverished urban areas—get harsher sentences than those convicted of possession of or selling powder cocaine, the choice of more affluent drug users. In Smith's case, her sentence was actually longer than the average time served by convicted murderers in Virginia.

At a Glance …

Born Kemba Naimi Smith on August 28, 1971, in Virginia; daughter of Gus (an accountant) and Odessa (a teacher) Smith; child: William Armani Smith. Education: Attended Hampton University, 1989-91, Johnson C. Smith University, 1992, and Central Piedmont Community College, 1993; Virginia Union University, BSW, 2002; completed one year at Howard University School of Law.

Career: Worked for a housing agency, 1993, and a law firm after 2001; founder of Kemba Smith Foundation; lecturer and public speaker to schools and community groups, 2001—.

Addresses: Office—Kemba Smith Foundation, PO Box 2455, Richmond, VA 23218.

Pardoned by President Clinton

In the spring of 1996 Emerge magazine ran a cover story, titled "Kemba's Nightmare." It led to an offer by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund to provide legal aid to Smith and her parents. When their efforts to free Smith failed, they petitioned President Bill Clinton for clemency, which he granted in December of 2000.

Following her release from prison Smith earned a bachelor's degree in social work from Virginia Union University and established the Kemba Smith Foundation, which advocates reform of sentencing laws and works with teens to keep them away from illegal drugs and crime. Although she wanted to forget that part of her life, she decided to use her notoriety to help others. "It took me empowering myself because I didn't really particularly care for the reason people know me," she told Margena A. Christian in Jet. "But I've been able to embrace that part of my life as a part of me. I've become a strong woman. I've recognized what God has done for me and He's used me as a vessel."