Revisiting The State of Alabama v. Brittany Smith: A First Hand Account
Psych Legal Pop Podcast
Tess & Brooke Brigham
4.2 • 610 Ratings
🗓️ 20 March 2025
⏱️ 63 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode we revisit the case of the State of Alabama v. Brittany Smith, a documentary we covered on episode #117 of this podcast. Our special guest today is Carolyn, who served time in the same prison as Brittany, at the same time as Brittany, at the Julia Tutwiler prison for women in Wetumpka, Alabama. Carolyn speaks very openly about her experience in the criminal justice system in Alabama and shares with us the harsh realities facing female inmates and the intersection between the prison system and the education system. You don't want to miss this enlightening episode.
The State of Alabama v. Brittany Smith is a harrowing story about a woman trying to use Alabama's stand your ground law as a defense after killing a man who brutally attacked and raped her in her own home and held her hostage in her home for days. In over 30 US States, including Alabama, state law makes it legal to use lethal force to defend oneself against threats or even perceived threats. However, the defense seems only to apply to white men. When invoked by women or men of color it rarely, if ever, succeeds.
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| 0:00.0 | Hello everyone and welcome to the Psych Legal Pop podcast. |
| 0:05.5 | This is a podcast where we talked about popular culture through the lens of an attorney and a therapist. |
| 0:11.2 | My name is Brooke Brigham. I'm the attorney. |
| 0:13.6 | And I'm Tess Brigham. I'm the therapist. |
| 0:16.0 | And today we have a very special guest. |
| 0:20.8 | We recorded, this is episode 117. |
| 0:25.4 | We recorded a episode about the documentary, the state of Alabama versus Britney Smith. |
| 0:33.1 | And just to refresh your recollection, this is about a woman in Alabama who was convicted, |
| 0:42.2 | well, she actually pled guilty, but she was charged with murder. |
| 0:47.2 | She tried to use the stand-your-ground rule in Alabama. |
| 0:51.6 | Alabama and some other states have this stand-your-ground rule or if somebody is in your own home, |
| 0:57.3 | you have no duty to retreat before using deadly force. And she killed a man with a gun who she had |
| 1:07.0 | led into her home initially voluntarily, but he wouldn't leave. |
| 1:11.6 | He ended up raping her, and she shot him and was not allowed to use the stand-your-ground defense in her case. |
| 1:23.7 | And she ended up taking a plea deal and ended up only serving about three years, but they really, |
| 1:33.6 | the prosecution was really very adamant about getting a conviction out of her. |
| 1:38.4 | They wanted her to be a felon for life. |
| 1:41.3 | And that set her, really set her on a path to setting her up to violate her probation |
| 1:48.6 | because she had so many constraints and so many things working against her. But anyway, |
| 1:53.9 | we will talk more about the Britney Smith case as we go along because there's a lot to it. |
| 1:59.8 | That's just a snapshot. |
| 2:02.3 | But we were contacted by our guest today whose name is Carolyn. And she reached out after finding |
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