DID A WIFE STAND HER GROUND AND KILL HER ESTRANGED HUSBAND AFTER AN ALLEGED RAPE, OR WAS IT A COLD-HEARTED MURDER?

"48 Hours: The Verdict"

Saturday, April 25, 2015

Anita Smithey was convicted of second-degree murder for killing her estranged husband, Robert Cline, while the two were in bed. She claims it happened during a violent rape and she felt he would kill her. Police and Cline's family think otherwise. Did the jury get it right?

Peter Van Sant and 48 HOURS investigate the death of Robert Cline and the case against Anita Smithey in "The Verdict" to be broadcast Saturday, April 25 (10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

"I did not murder him," Smithey tells Van Sant in her only interview. "I want people to know the truth, through my eyes. What happened - I'm not the person they're trying to portray me to be."

The story unfolds in a Florida home in May 2010, when Anita Smithey told police she shot her estranged husband twice after he attacked her in her bedroom. She said he also stabbed her with a knife. "I don't want him to die," she screamed to a police dispatcher.

The case pits the couple's extended families against each other in a quest to find out what happened between two people in a darkened Florida bedroom. The case also raises questions about Smithey and Cline's relationship leading up to the night of the shooting, and whether the shooting was justified or murder.

"I believe that my mom did what she had to do to escape with her life," says Drew Smithey, Anita's son from a previous marriage.

"She has no heart at all," says Stephanie Cline, Robert Cline's daughter from a previous marriage. "I'm sorry, but she doesn't."

Who is right?

During a police interrogation, Smithey went from being a victim to a murder suspect when she admitted to stabbing herself. But was it an admission? No way, says her attorney, who maintains that police bullied her into making that statement.

"It's more probably that somebody's going to say something in compliance with the police to get out of that room," says attorney Whitney Boan.

Prosecutors argue there was no rape and say the knife wounds were self-inflicted.

Van Sant and 48 HOURS explore the intricacies of the case and look at whether Smithey was standing her ground or if she was a killer through interviews with Smithey family members and friends, her attorney, Cline's family, prosecutors and police. 48 HOURS: "The Verdict" is produced by Chris Young Ritzen, Tamara Weitzman and Patti Aronofsky. Al Briganti is the executive editor. Susan Zirinsky is the senior executive producer.

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