Superior Court Judge Scott Minter sentenced Richard Marvin Smith, 53, to serve the remainder of his life in prison without the possibility of parole for a 2019 rape. Judge Minter sentenced Smith to an additional ten years to serve (the maximum) on an attempted kidnapping charge which arose from the same incident. Smith was convicted on May 13 by a Whitfield County jury following a three day trial.
The State’s case was presented by Assistant District Attorney Mark Higgins who also represented the State at the sentencing hearing. Mr.
Higgins tendered certified copies of three prior felony convictions on Smith. Prior to the rape offense in 2019, Smith had been convicted of burglary in 1986, possession of methamphetamine and cocaine in 2003 and possession of cocaine in 2005. Smith’s attorney, Alan Norton, did not contest the evidence of prior convictions.
Under Georgia Law, the charge of rape carries 25 years to life in prison. A person convicted of rape who has either a single prior conviction for a serious violent felony such as murder, rape, armed robbery or aggravated child molestation, or three or more prior felony convictions regardless of the prior charges, must be sentenced to the maximum sentence of life and that sentence must be served in its entirety without the possibility of parole.