1st US woman freed from death row talks to Oak Ridgers
Carolyn Krause/Special to The Oak Ridger
Sabrina Butler Smith, mother of three children, lost her 9-month-old son Walter to a disease when she was 17. He died in his sleep while she was outside for a short jog. When the Black teenager returned to her apartment in Columbus, Miss., and fetched a bottle of milk to feed him, she discovered he did not appear to be breathing. She tried to save him. She had no car so she knocked on neighbors’ doors looking for a ride to the hospital.