MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Jurors just weren't convinced that the city's top medical examiner would tie himself up with barbed wire and hang a bomb around his neck — all because he craved attention.
Now federal prosecutors must decide if they want to try former medical examiner O.C. Smith again and hope for better luck with a different group of jurors.
"I will say that retrials usually favor the government," U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins said after Smith's three-week trial ended with a hung jury Tuesday.
Smith was found at 12:30 a.m. on June 2, 2002, in an outside stairwell of the Shelby County morgue padlocked to a window screen with his feet, wrists and head wrapped in barbed wire. A homemade bomb was hung at his neck. He told authorities he was attacked by someone who threw a chemical in his face, causing minor burns.
Prosecutors contend the attack could not have happened the way Smith said. They also say he craves attention and sympathy because of a mental disorder.