[Paola] Smugglers in the Caribbean
have been trafficking migrants from the islands
into the U.S. for generations.
[Paola] They're not only just doing it for the money
but also because they can get away with it.
I can't speculate as to what's in a smuggler's head,
and we're gonna do our best to stop them.
[Paola] Do you think they have any clue?
[Dexter] When the police tell you
you're gonna be held responsible
for the death of A'Donte,
what was going through your mind?
This is all because of a rule called felony murder.
If someone dies while a felony's being committed,
then everyone who was involved in that felony
can be held responsible.
What did you think was an appropriate punishment for him?
Burglary.
It may not be your child today,
but tomorrow it can very well be.
dramatic music
[people shouting]
[Paola] Off the coast of Florida,
U.S. law enforcement authorities
are constantly chasing modern-day pirates,
smugglers bringing migrants in the country illegally.
This onslaught of boats is coming
from all over the Caribbean, but the best launch point
lies just 50 miles off Miami's coast.
The island of Bimini in the Bahamas
is what's known as the gateway to America,
a mere two-hour trip by boat.
Under the cover of night,
clandestine launches like this one,
filmed earlier this summer from an abandoned pier,
show the beginning of the quiet
and often successful operations.
We later learned that these four migrants
made it safely to the United States.
[boat engine revving]
But that's not always the case.
[reporter] A stunning site on the water,
when a boat leads police on a wild chase.
On board, a group of migrants
trying to make it to South Florida.
[officer] They are now crashing into the sea wall.
[Paola] Smugglers in the Caribbean
have been trafficking migrants from the island
into the U.S. for generations,
dodging both Bahamian and U.S. authorities.
But with an increased crackdown
along the U.S.-Mexico border over the past two years,
the numbers here have exploded.
The U.S. Coast Guard says it has stopped
four times as many migrants from Cuba and Haiti
since October than all of last year.
[smuggler] They can't stop it.
They only can slow it down.
When you see boats moving in the night,
they're not going fishing.
[Paola] We were able to make contact with a smuggler.
He arranges and executes illegal crossings to Florida,
usually at night.
We agreed not to show his face or reveal his name.
What do you use to navigate at night?
My eyes.
[Paola] Do you use a GPS?
Not really, 'cause GPS gets you caught.
-Do you use lights? -No.
So you use your eyes? That's it.
[smuggler] Yeah. I can run off the compass.
Like, I know exactly what star to look for.
Like, see, y'all can't see it now,
because the Moon is out,
but the Big Dipper's right there.
And the Big Dipper sits really close to the Moon.
-[Paola] Yeah. -So you can basically run
and just keep the Moon in the middle of the Big Dipper.
You can't miss it.
At this point, how many runs do you think you've done total?
Put it like this--
I've been running for over 22 years by myself.
Prior to that, I was doing it with my uncles
and, like, older cousins.
How much does each migrant have to pay
in order to get into one of these boats?
A Haitian will pay, like, 4,500.
A Jamaican will pay, like, 4,500, 6,500.
And say, like, we like to say "white people,"
they're spending, like, 12 grand, 16 grand,
sometimes almost 20 grand per person.
Now, when you get into that level,
you're not just dropping off-- you're delivering.
So it's, like-- let's say Chinese.
You don't drop Chinese off on the beach.
Somebody has to be there to pick them up,
and then they store them somewhere else.
And then the Chinese people come,
and then they pay you more, and then they get their people.
I imagine not everyone has a life vest.
[smuggler] Nah, not everybody, sometimes nobody--me.
[Paola] And in the course of that hour and a half
that it takes you to get there, how are the migrants feeling?
[smuggler] It's normally be a lot of praying and talking,
and you don't know what the hell they be saying.
So I just normally be telling everybody,
"Stop praying. Stop talking. Do that shit in your head."
[Paola] Bimini smugglers don't need faith
to make the crossing.
Piracy is in their blood.
In the 1600 and 1700s pirates like Sir Francis Drake
and Blackbeard used the island's proximity to the U.S.
to hide treasures and capture their prey.
In more recent history,
smugglers transported cocaine during the crack epidemic
and booze on boats like this one
during Prohibition.
Today human trafficking is their business of choice.
It can be more lucrative than moving drugs
and carries lighter sentences.
So what makes the difference between a successful operation
and an operation that fails?
You just got to go out there and figure it out.
If you don't leave two o'clock, you're gonna get caught,
because by the time that you get to Miami,
it's gonna be daytime.
So the drone, the jet, and the chopper
know exactly what they're looking for.
But in the night, you can just drop them off on the beach.
Every boat looks white.
[Paola] Despite all their technology and manpower,
the American Coast Guard is still struggling
to stay one step ahead of them.
[Benjamin] It's an ongoing cat-and-mouse game, right?
That's the nature of criminal networks,
and that's the nature of law enforcement.
But many do still get away, right?
I mean, we were there,
and we were able to talk to some smugglers in Bimini,
who told us that they're not only just doing it
for the money but also because they can get away with it.
I'd love if you'd give me those names.
-That'd be great. -Why don't you have the names?
[person] All right, so we work with the Bahamian authorities.
-Great. -We can't get into
as in depth as you're trying to get with us...
-[Paola] Okay. -...because we're not
the people on land in the Bahamas
-[Paola] Yeah, and... -Yeah, so...
That's fine. I'm not here trying to catch anyone.
We're just explaining what we saw,
and based on the ground--
[Benjamin] No, and so to give you an answer
to that question is, I can't speculate
as to what's in a smuggler's head.
I'm gonna put my forces where I see that there's a threat,
and we're gonna do our best to stop them.
What is the danger that migrants and smugglers
are taking when they decide to come to the United States?
[Benjamin] I've spent over half of my career at sea.
I know how dangerous
the sea can be for a professional mariner.
It's unforgiving, and it can change in an instant.
And the people that are loading
onto these unsafe and unseaworthy craft
and attempting to make those crossings
are absolutely at risk.
But is Bimini at all uniquely different
from other sort of routes that smugglers are taking
to come to the United States?
[Benjamin] I think, really, a lot of it has to do
with that proximity piece.
And when you look at the overall volume
of boat traffic that's crossing the Florida Straits from Bimini
to the U.S. and back and forth, on any given weekend,
it's easy to blend in with that traffic,
if there were illicit actions going on.
[Paola] Bimini is an oasis for tourists.
On any given weekend, fishermen and college students
come from Miami by boat, unknowingly providing cover
for smugglers who can slip into the traffic pattern.
And it's even worse on Spring Break.
[people cheering]
Why did you choose the Bahamas specifically?
[Adam] It's easier.
We drove to Lauderdale,
got on this boat.
The price was, like, 700 bucks to do this.
You can't complain.
[party music plays]
[Paola] Smugglers will even use luxury yachts
to appear like American tourists
and evade suspicion,
while hiding migrants below deck,
and the partiers around them have no idea
they are helping conceal the illicit activity.
dramatic music
Migrants looking for smugglers come here from Cuba,
the Dominican Republic, and primarily Haiti
to be taken to the U.S.
While they wait for passage, restaurants feed them,
and some residents are paid off
to hide them in their homes.
A local source told us that there may be Haitian migrants
in these houses that are to my left.
These are houses that look completely abandoned.
So we're assuming that these may be houses
where Haitians are holding before being smuggled
to the United States.
In communities like this one,
finding a smuggler to get you off the island
is about word of mouth and making connections.
The Haitian residents we spoke to
did not want to go on camera for fear of being arrested.
[Paola] Accidents at sea happen
and almost always turn to tragedy.
The Coast Guard tonight has launched a search
for 39 people reported missing after a boat
believed to be piloted by human smugglers capsized.
[Paola] Just last month, another boat bound for Miami
from the Bahamas sank, killing 16 Haitian adults
and one child.
The time is never right to attempt migration by sea.
To those who risk their lives doing so,
this risk is not worth taking.
[Paola] Last summer
Homeland Security Director
Alejandro Mayorkas
warned migrants against the risk
of attempting the journey.
But the number of migrants intercepted at sea
has continued to grow.
[person] speaking Haitian Creole
[Paola] In the past three years,
half of this Haitian church's congregation
has left and attempted the journey by sea.
Wilcum Derilus fled Haiti
and has witnessed their desperation firsthand.
[Wilcum] speaking Haitian Creole
Do you personally know anyone that has drowned or died
attempting to reach the United States?
[Wilcum] Yes.
-My best friend. -[Paola] Mm.
Yeah.
speaking Haitian Creole
[Paola] With hundreds of thousands of dollars
on the table,
smugglers have no reason to stop.
Before you take these trips to the United States,
do you warn migrants about the risk
that they're about to take?
[smuggler] I don't warn them.
I just asked them, could they swim?
And if they say no, I'm not carrying them.
I don't do kids and teenagers.
Because you're scared when you take those trips--
[smuggler] I'm not scared.
If you fall overboard and drown, that's on you.
You already know the risks of coming.
You know the risks of getting in this boat.
Everybody's heard some, like, really fucked-up story
about somebody dying,
the boat flipped over, et cetera.
But you still want to go, right?
So accept the fact that that shit can happen to you, too.
So, so long as you get a profit from migrants,
you'll keep on trying to make that journey?
[smuggler] Exactly.
As long as you get the money, you do what you got to do.
dramatic music
[birds chirping]
somber music
[sighs]
I'm gonna miss you so much, 'Donte
It makes me angry all over again
just thinking about it.
They just don't give a damn about our life,
just killing us like it ain't shit
and getting away with it.
officer] Isn't that the car?
[Dexter] Seven years ago, A'Donte Washington
and a group of four other boys entered an empty house
in a predominantly white suburb in Alabama.
They were stealing things,
like TVs and Xbox games.
Police arrived, and one entered the house.
Shots were fired...
[gunshot]
...including, police say, by A'Donte.
[gunshots]
A'Donte ran into the backyard,
where he was shot and killed by an officer.
The police officer was cleared of any wrongdoing
and was never charged.
Instead, murder charges fell on each of the boys.
Now, this is all because of a rule called felony murder,
which says that if somebody dies
while a felony is being committed,
then everybody who was involved in that crime
can be held responsible.
Most murder charges require proof of intent or malice,
but felony murder radically expands that definition
so that if a qualifying felony takes place,
you can be charged even if the death
is caused by a third party.
And since it falls under the umbrella
of the traditional definition of murder
the sentence in most states
can go up to life without parole,
a similar punishment
to if you'd pulled the trigger yourself.
And so, across the country,
people who never committed a homicide
are being sentenced as murderers.
Last month six teenagers allegedly tried
to break into a car.
The owner shot and killed one of them.
The five other teens were all charged
with the boy's murder.
[reporter] Tonight Madison police
are searching for two suspects
at the center of an armed robbery.
The victim was literally scared to death.
[reporter] Those actions now have Madison PD
calling for felony murder charges.
[Dexter] The concept or charge of felony murder
is as old as the country itself.
And of the 48 states with felony murder laws
on the books, in 13 of them, you can be charged
even if it's the cops that kill someone.
That's what happened to LaKeith Smith.
[scissors snipping]
[BronTina] I'm gonna make a shirt.
I'm gonna place a picture of my son LaKeith on the shirt.
It will look like that.
[Dexter] LaKeith Smith was the youngest of the boys
who was in the house that day
when A'Donte Washington was killed
He was 15 at the time,
and he was sentenced to 65 years.
If he serves his full sentence,
how old would he be when he gets out?
Old.
And I'd be dead.
My mom would be dead. My dad'd be dead.
Like, most of them that he knows as family
would be dead.
So, even to come home at 73, what is he coming home to?
What did you think was an appropriate punishment for him?
Burglary.
And I think it was, like, three to ten
or something like that, I think it is.
If this crime says that you get three years,
then, damn it, you gonna get them three years.
And he ended up getting 65 and then down to 55 years.
Right, only because they're able to throw
that murder in there.
Sentencings are under way in Elmore County
for the defendants in the felony murder cases.
[Dexter] LaKeith, who had charges pending
from a previous case,
was the only one of the boys to plead not guilty.
He went to trial before an all-white jury,
and he lost.
[Dexter] What was the plea deal?
-What were they offering? -Like, 25.
Yeah, I think it was, like, 25 years.
-What did he tell you? -He's just not gonna do it.
It wasn't really, say, about the time.
It was about the fact that now you want me to say
I killed my friend out there.
He was shot and killed by a police officer.
-It was a principle thing? -Yeah.
I always told LaKeith about the system,
'cause we have people in it.
Once they get their hands on you,
there's nothing I can do or say,
nothing I can do or say.
[Leroy] When you take a case like this
in a hotly conservative state,
a law-and-order county,
you end up with essentially a death sentence.
[Dexter] Leroy Maxwell is a lawyer
who's now working on LaKeith Smith's case.
He says it's not just the length the sentence is.
It's also the sort of people that felony murder charges
tend to target.
Most jurisdictions don't track data
on how felony murder is used.
But there have been independent studies
that track convictions, sentencing,
and actual imprisonment,
and they all show that felony murder
is overwhelmingly applied to non-white people.
It's the perfect
prosecutorial tool
to sweep as many folks up as possible
and brand them as murderers.
Were you surprised when you heard the verdict?
[Leroy] I was not surprised of the verdict.
I was surprised by the sentencing.
Why does a sentence happen like that?
Alabama is a state
where our elected officials
are put on a pedestal if they're tougher on crime.
If the players involved are police
versus young Black men,
we sort of know where the dominoes are gonna fall.
[Dexter] Over the past few years
the racially biased trends and extreme sentencing
associated with felony murder have motivated
at least seven states
to attempt to change all
or parts of
felony murder laws.
But the opposition to those
changes has been strong.
That's partially because state prosecutors
aren't interested
in having one of their most powerful tools taken away.
[Eric] Is it an easier theory of liability to prove
than, for example, normal murder?
100%, because all you have to do
is prove the underlying felony.
Did they intend to commit a robbery?
[Dexter] Eric Siddall is a prosecutor in Los Angeles,
and things have recently changed here.
In 2018 California amended their felony murder laws
This restricted the kinds of offenses
that were eligible for the charge
and allowed hundreds of people who'd recently been imprisoned
for felony murder to petition the courts
for relief or reduced sentences.
Eric and a lot of his colleagues
say that this was a bad idea.
What is the argument
for keeping felony murder laws on the books?
The argument is that you want to hold people accountable
for the consequences of their actions.
Not every crime ends with the intended crime.
There are certain times where an intended crime
leads to other horrible results.
I think the most noteworthy case is in the Arbery case.
[Dexter] In February of 2020,
Ahmaud Arbery was jogging in his neighborhood
when he was attacked by three white men.
[gunshot]
Only one of those men fired the shot that killed him,
but because of Georgia's felony murder law,
the other two men were also given similar sentences
They're now looking at life in prison.
[crowd cheering]
I never thought this day would come.
But God is good.
[person] Amen.
[Dexter] The sense of justice
that a lot of people felt at that verdict was real.
So, for a lot of prosecutors,
this verdict is the success story to point to
to argue that felony murder needs to stay.
And Eric says that if the Arbery case
had happened in California,
that punishment would have been different.
They would have been charged with simple false imprisonment.
They would be looking at a maximum sentence
of three years,
and they would only serve about 50% of that.
-So out in a year and a half. -Right.
I think people would be extremely indignant
and offended by that.
If we want to reform felony murder,
the reform should not be about abolishing the doctrine.
You want your sentences to be proportional.
Keep the doctrine
and then make sure that it's administered properly.
[Dexter] But even if states change
the length of sentences,
that wouldn't change the pattern of people
who are usually targeted with felony murder charges.
Leroy Maxwell says that pattern
is something deeply embedded in the system.
[Leroy] LaKeith Smith was sentenced to die in prison,
and it came down to a societal issue
that we see when it comes to race and sentencing.
There's more to this than just guilt and innocence.
There's so much at play
that started 1,000 years before that,
from slavery to Black codes to Jim Crow to over-sentencing,
the War on Drugs,
the demonization of Black, young men.
I imagine for LaKeith,
that entire burden came down on him in that moment,
and he realized that this isn't just
about whether I pulled the trigger or not.
There's so much more to it.
tense music
[Dexter] Since I've been here in Alabama,
the one person I haven't been able to speak with
is LaKeith Smith himself.
So he's locked up in there.
And the state intends to keep him locked up
until he's 70 years old.
We have put in requests to film an interview with him.
The warden said no.
The Department of Corrections hasn't responded
to our requests.
So the only thing left is a phone call.
Hey, LaKeith, can you hear me?
When the police tell you
that you're gonna be held responsible
for the death of A'Donte,
what was going through your mind?
When they handed down that sentence,
what was going through your mind?
You were laughing. Why is that?
Is there anything that you would want to say to A'Donte?
Sorry? Why is that?
[indistinct chatter, person laughing]
'Donte, you got your whole family here with you.
[indistinct chatter]
[Dexter] Do you blame LaKeith for your son's death?
[Vernice] No.
He asked me, did I blame him? And he kept apologizing.
I told him, "No, I don't blame you at all,
"'cause you ain't the one that killed him.
"And I don't think you should be in there
"for my baby murder, when you not the one that killed him."
You want LaKeith to come home.
I feel like he shouldn't do another day,
-and he needs to come home. -[Dexter] Right.
LaKeith Smith filed an appeal in 2018.
That was denied.
His new attorney has filed another petition
for a retrial.
But there's no guarantee
that that one will go through either.
Still, his family hasn't given up.
[BronTina] Everybody outside?
[Dexter] This is the eighth year
that LaKeith's mom is celebrating his birthday
without him.
But this year she's not alone.
LaKeith's case has also gotten support
of the family members of Breonna Taylor,
Jacob Blake, and George Floyd.
[BronTina] I appreciate all the love, man.
Listen, we gonna get these babies some justice.
-That's right. -From A'Donte to LaKeith.
But God gave my boy a heart to say,
"No, I'm not gonna take this plea.
I'm not gonna take this deal."
We gonna fight this thing. We gonna fight it.
It may not be your child today.
-Whoo. -[person] Yes, Lord.
It may not be your nephew today,
your daughter today, your homegirl time today,
but tomorrow it could very well be.
[person] That's right. That's right.
dramatic music