A jail death shocked an Alabama town. The sheriff remains in power.

The jail death of a man who suffered from mental illness drew criminal charges against Alabama guards. The sheriff says he’s done nothing wrong.

JASPER, AL — On a brisk December morning in Walker County, Alabama, the temperature in Sheriff Nick Smith’s office is a welcome shelter from the cold.

After ushering a reporter inside, Smith tilts his head back and peers across his desk, where papers are folded and arranged with geometric precision. He proffers a stack of printouts he says will prove his innocence — his lack of culpability.

Down a flight of stairs from where Smith sits, into a chill that grows with every step, Anthony "Tony" Mitchell slowly froze to death in a concrete cell in January 2023. About 100 feet from the sheriff’s immaculate enclave, jailers who worked for Smith jeered as Mitchell shivered in his own waste, court records show.

A short walk from that cell, where the floor of the sheriff’s office forms the ceiling of the Walker County Jail, a group of guards beat a man until one of their uniforms was soaked with his blood, according to court records. Nearby, deputies bribed a prisoner to serve as their enforcer. In the infirmary down the hall, jailers pummeled a man so hard they broke bones.

Three years later, none of it has come back on Smith. He struts calmly through the spaces where these things occurred, proudly pointing out the improvements he has made. Cameras over here. Monitors to track inmates’ breathing over there. Supplies stacked in the bare cell where Mitchell once lay dying. As Smith walks, he has a habit of taking hold of the lapels of his Army-green vest, shrugging it forward in a muted facsimile of The Fonz.