In an early display of how Smith would pursue and prosecute any criminals regardless of the position of authority they held, he would secure the convictions of several officers of the New York City Police Department who physically attacked, brutalized, and raped Abner Louima after he was arrested outside a Brooklyn nightclub, despite their attempts to cover up the attack.
His career and reputation would go from strength to strength when in 2008 joined the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, an intergovernmental organization and international tribunal seated in The Hague, Netherlands. He oversaw cases against government officials and militia members accused of war crimes and genocide, most notably when he returned to The Hague in 2018 after being named to a four-year term as chief prosecutor for the Kosovo Specialist Chambers which were investigating war crimes committed in the Kosovo War.
