Joseph Flood Leads Defense Sparing Prince William County Defendant from Death Penalty
Sheldon, Flood & Haywood attorney Joseph Flood led a hard-fought defense of Aric Smith, a 25 year-old Army veteran charged in Prince William County, Virginia with murdering Gregory Holley, a retired ATF officer, during a robbery.
- Inside Nova, “Man sentenced to life in prison for killing retired ATF agent in Woodbridge”
- WUSA 9, “Va. man who killed former ATF agent sentenced to life”
- Washington Post, “Killer of former ATF agent sentenced to life in prison”
The Prince William County Commonwealth’s Attorney had sought the death penalty against Mr. Smith. Over the course of two years, the defense filed over 140 motions — including innovative challenges to the use of dog-tracking evidence, the admissibility of unreliable proof of “future dangerousness”, and the constitutionality of Virginia’s death penalty statute — and presented extensive evidence of Mr. Smith‘s long-standing mental illness, substance abuse, and honorable service in the American armed forces. The case finally ended on January 23, 2015, when Prince William County Circuit Court Judge Lon Farris accepted Mr. Smith‘s admission of responsibility and expressions of remorse to the victim’s family who attended the sentencing hearing.
