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Series 5: 2. Smith

Leading criminal barristers Jeremy Dein QC and Sasha Wass QC reinvestigate a lethal shooting from 1937, when a barge captain was allegedly murdered by his best friend. \n\nFelixstowe Docks, 1937. On 23 October the deceased body of barge skipper Albert Baker was found below deck aboard his vessel. He had been shot three times at close range with his own pistol, one that needed reloading after each shot had been fired. \n\nYet mysteriously none of the dock workers heard any gunfire, and Baker’s close friend, and the barge’s only other crewman, Walter Smith had disappeared. Police tracked down Smith to a pub in nearby Ipswich. He had been drinking for most of the previous 48 hours and gave two contradictory statements to police while still under the influence of alcohol. \n\nEven though no motive could be established, Walter Smith was arrested and charged with the murder of his friend and colleague. After a three-day trial at the Suffolk Assizes, Walter Smith was found guilty of Albert Baker’s murder, and he was hanged at Norwich prison on 8 March 1938. \n\nNow two relatives of Walter Smith, mother and daughter Catherine and Connie, are looking to uncover the truth about what really happened on the barge on the day that Albert Baker was killed, and they have enlisted the help of Sacha and Jeremy. The case against their relative was a controversial one that relied on the statement that Smith had given while under the influence of alcohol. \n\nSasha and Jeremy reassess the original conviction with the help of a ballistics expert and a forensic psychiatrist to get a modern-day perspective on the key evidence that was used to convict Walter Smith of murder. Will they be able to question the safety of the original conviction?

Source: BBC 1