Smiths candor at parole hearing wasnt enough to win his freedom

Eric M. Smith wanted the parole commissioners to know he respects life.

I understand that your job is to make a decision based on whether or not Im safe for society, Smith said during his recent bid for parole after serving 20 years for killing a 4-year-old boy.

Im not a threat, he said, and the reason why I know Im not a threat is because I value life.

Not just mine, not just yours, not just these two ladies sitting in the room, but every single person I come in contact with, he said, according to a transcript obtained Wednesday by The Buffalo News.

It was not Smiths first crack at parole. Nor will it be his last. The three commissioners presiding over his hearing, who included former State Sen. Marc Coppola, chose to keep him in the Collins Correctional Facility because his crime was so brutal.

Smith, who is now 34 and serving a sentence of nine years to life behind bars, can try again in two years.

Smith was a child himself a bullied 13-year-old when he lured 4-year-old Derrick Robie into some woods in Steuben County. He choked him, bashed his head with a rock, sodomized him with a stick and hid the body.

I completely understand that my actions in 1993 can never be changed and they were horrendous. They were violent, and they were very uncalled for and they were wrong, Smith told the parole board April 9. I cant change that.

But the person he was at age 13 no longer exists, he said. That child that I was that committed that crime, hes gone, he said. Hes never coming back.

Further, he wanted to assure the parole commissioners that 20 years of confinement did not harden him into someone unfit for society: My institutionalization is not going to cause me to commit crime or rebel against the system. Its helped me to look at laws and regulations that society has and say, I can live up to these rules.

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Smiths candor at parole hearing wasnt enough to win his freedom