He walked slowly through the courtroom eyeing the free who sat among the 14 rows of benches before taking a seat at the table. The incessant clanging of shackles punctuated the eight minutes of otherwise silence before the judge entered to deliver his fate. His feet, it seemed, could not stop bouncing.
"Donald Smith," Circuit Judge Mallory Cooper said Wednesday morning, "you have not only forfeited your right to live among us, you have forfeited your right to life at all."
At times during the sentencing, Judge Cooper's voice cracked from emotion.
"May God have mercy on your soul," Judge said just moments before the culmination of nearly five years of court proceedings on the state's case against 61-year-old Donald James Smith for killing 8-year-old Cherish Perrywinkle.
Donald J. Smith. Lot of 3 ALS: (1) #10, pmk: September 24, 2015; (2) Booklet #5 (5.5 in x 8.125), 1.4 oz, pmk: September 25, 2015; (3) #10, pmk: n.d. SEALED. Content unknown. Pristine.
Smith (hereinafter referred to as “Donny”) lured the little girl away from her mother at Walmart on Jacksonville, Florida’s west side with the promise of cheeseburgers. Out of custody just 21 days, Donny in 2013 raped and sodomized Cherish before strangling her. He then dumped her body in a creek bed. Donny, who has been labeled a sex offender since the 1970s, will join 51 other Duval County convicts on death row.
Donny abducted the young girl after befriending her mother during a shopping trip. Prosecutors said he offered to buy clothes for the child, and went with them to a Walmart. The mother then let Donny take Cherish to the in-store McDonald’s, and security video showed him leaving there with the girl.
At the end of the penalty phase, the prosecution discussed during their closing argument how Donny gained Cherish’s mother’s trust with “lie, after lie, after lie,” including making reference to a wife that didn’t exist. They also emphasized the horrific details of what Donny did to the girl when he raped her and then ended her life.
“Cold, calculated, premeditated.” Those were the words used to describe Donny’s actions, echoing the language used in one of the elements that the jury considered for the death penalty.
The details were tough to hear during the main part of the trial. Even a medical examiner needed to take a break, as she got emotional while discussing Cherish’s injuries on the stand.
The defense presented testimony to convince the jury not to give Donny the death penalty. This included Donny’s own son, who testified via video chat from outside a McDonald’s.
Ultimately, the jury wasn’t swayed, and decided that Donny should die for his crimes.i
In 2022, The SCOTUS denied the appeal request of Donny who
faced the death penalty for the 2013 rape and murder of
8-year-old Cherish Perrywinkle.
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i Child
Rapist and Murderer Donald Smith Gets Death Penalty | Law &
Crime (2018). Available at:
https://lawandcrime.com/live-trials/live-trials-current/donald-smith/child-rapist-and-murderer-donald-smith-gets-death-penalty/
(Accessed: 1 April 2023).