His appeals lawyers say that the trial had serious problems. During his closing statement, the prosecutor compared the lives of Smith and Humphries during a year, suggesting, in the words of Judge Wilkinson of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, that "his life is of less worth than that of someone else." The prosecutor stated that it was "profane to give this man a gift of life under these circumstances." Wilkinson wrote in his dissenting opinion that the fact that Humphries's lawyer did not object to these statements is the hallmark of ineffective counsel.