NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — The man scheduled for execution this month in Tennessee has declined to choose an execution method, which is what stopped executions in 2022.
Oscar Franklin Smith is scheduled for execution on May 22. The default method is lethal injection. That execution method is the state’s preferred means.
In early April, Smith and death row inmate Byron Black asked Gov. Bill Lee for a reprieve on death row executions because of the state's lethal injection method.
They asked the governor to halt executions until March 1, 2026, when a trial on the constitutionality of Tennessee's new execution protocol is scheduled.
“With a trial scheduled for early next year, it would be unconscionable to allow Oscar or Byron to be executed now,” said Amy Harwell, an attorney for the death row prisoners.
Four executions are slated for this year. This is Smith's fourth execution date.
His last date was two years ago when Gov. Lee issued a temporary reprieve on executions because of the state's protocol methods.
“Tennessee has a long history of egregious mistakes in administering executions. Governor Lee has repeatedly done the right thing to prevent irreparable injustice, and we hope he will do so once again, ensuring that the courts can carefully review the new protocol before the State moves forward with any executions, said Kelley Henry, another attorney for the prisoners.
Smith was found guilty of the 1989 killings of his estranged wife, Judith Robirds Smith, and her teenage sons — Jason Burnett and Chad Burnett. Smith was convicted of killing the three in their Woodbine home in 1989. Throughout the years, Judith Smith had filed domestic violence charges against Smith. A relative, 8-years-old, found the family dead.
Gov. Lee rejected a clemency filing by Smith's attorneys.
His defense team argued that new DNA evidence proves he's innocent, saying the state is "poised to execute an innocent man." They're referring to a new analysis of a palm print on the murder weapon they say no longer points to it belonging to Smith, even though investigators also found gunshot and stab wounds on the victims.
Judge Aleta Trauger said there's no indication the new evidence would have changed Smith's guilty verdict or death sentence, which initially allowed the execution to go forward.
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