Man who murdered former Saints DE Will Smith to receive new trial

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Cardell Hayes, convicted of killing New Orleans Saints star Will Smith, must receive a new trial because the guilty verdict was returned by a non-unanimous jury, the Louisiana attorney general's office concedes.

The prosecutors acknowledged in a filing with the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday that Hayes' conviction must be tossed because it was rendered by a split jury and his remains active. The brief, which also listed the Orleans Parish district attorney's office as one of the submitting agencies, will lead to the reversal of Hayes' conviction on counts of manslaughter for killing Smith and attempted manslaughter for shooting and wounding the defensive lineman's wife, Racquel Smith.

Smith's death on a Lower Garden District street on the night of April 9, 2016, cast a pall over New Orleans and led to a high-profile trial where Hayes argued that he shot the Saints player in self-defense after a traffic dispute. Most jurors didn't buy the tow truck driver's assertion, convicting him 10-2 of manslaughter and attempted manslaughter. Criminal District Court Judge Camille Buras sentenced Hayes to 25 years in prison.

But in April, the Supreme Court ruled that Louisiana and Oregon's unusual laws allowing split jury convictions were unconstitutional. Detractors of the law in Louisiana had pointed to its origins in a white supremacist state constitutional convention in 1898.

Observers expected that the Supreme Court decision would apply to Hayes, though not necessarily that prosecutors would concede to that.

Hayes' attorney, a representative for the Smith family and the Orleans district attorney's office didn't immediately return requests for comment Wednesday night.

Earlier this year, the DA's office had argued that Hayes' conviction should remain "undisturbed" because the Louisiana Supreme Court had already rejected his appeal. However, the U.S. Supreme Court decision applied to any convictions that weren't final -- and Hayes was still within the window where he could file a petition to the country's highest court.

Left unaddressed in the April ruling, known as Ramos v. Louisiana, was the question of what should happen to convictions that have gone through all of their appeals.

Advocates said this week that more than 1,500 state inmates were convicted by divided juries. The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear arguments next month on whether they, too, deserve new trials.

It will likely be up to Cannizzaro's successor, to be elected Dec. 5, to decide whether to retry Hayes and on which charges. Cannizzaro decided not to run for re-election, and City Council President Jason Williams and former judge Keva Landrum are vying to succeed him. Their campaigns didn't immediately return requests for comment.

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