Oscar Smith, who spent more than 30 years on Tennessee’s death row, was executed Thursday for the 1989 murders of his estranged wife and her two sons, and in his final words he insisted he was innocent.
Smith, 73, was the oldest death row inmate in the state and has long disputed his conviction. His execution marked the first in Tennessee since 2020, following a series of delays.
Smith’s execution was initially scheduled for 2022, but Governor Bill Lee granted a temporary reprieve due to concerns over lethal injection protocols.
Smith was sentenced to death in 1990 for the killing 35-year-old Judith Smith and her sons, 16-year-old Chad Burnett and 13-year-old Jason Burnett, in their Nashville home.
A jury agreed with prosecutors that Smith, upset over the couple’s pending divorce, shot and stabbed the victims. Smith was identified as a suspect based in part on a bloody palm print found at the scene.
Tennessee Department of Correction via AP, File
Why It Matters
Smith’s execution reignited debates over Tennessee’s death penalty process and the reliability of forensic evidence. His case received national attention in 2022 when Lee issued a temporary reprieve just hours before Smith was to be executed. That pause came after an internal review revealed the state had failed to properly test lethal injection chemicals, leading Lee to suspend all executions pending an independent investigation.
The investigation led to protocol reforms in December of last year. Smith’s execution was the first under the revised procedures.
What to Know
Smith was executed by lethal injection at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution. He was pronounced dead at 10:47 a.m.
Smith gave an approximately three-minute last statement criticizing the governor and the justice system.
“Our justice system is broken,” Smith said. “He has the power to stop this.”
He said too many innocent people are being killed.
“We have more men waiting to die at Riverbend. I won’t be the first, and I won’t be the last,” Smith said.
In a conversation with his spiritual adviser, he said, “I didn’t kill her.”
Kelley Henry, an attorney representing Smith, spoke to Newsweek about the concerns she had before Smith’s 2022 reprieve.
“As with my other clients, when our office took on Mr. Smith’s case, I was very concerned about Tennessee’s long history of egregious mistakes in administering executions,” Henry said. “We were unsure that the State would be able to carry out a constitutional execution and it turned out we were right.”
Three years later, a new protocol is in place, but Henry said not much has changed.
“The State’s new lethal injection protocol fails to address the problems of the prior one, is shrouded in secrecy, and we suspect the State has acquired its drugs from the ‘gray market,’ increasing risk of a tortuous death,” Henry said.
Henry said Smith had “deeply held religious beliefs,” which an autopsy would violate.
“We do know, however, from the dozens of autopsies that have been performed on those executed by pentobarbital, that this execution method causes excruciating pain and suffering. Our State should stop poisoning people to death in this cruel manner,” Henry said.
Smith continued to challenge his conviction, citing new fingerprint technology and DNA testing that he says exclude him as the killer. In 2022, his legal team pointed to a fingerprint on a murder weapon that did not belong to Smith or the victims. However, courts consistently denied his appeals.
Tennessee’s Supreme Court recently declined to hear another appeal and Lee declined to grant clemency, clearing the way for his execution.
Smith requested hotdogs, tater tots and apple pie with vanilla ice cream for his last meal.
What People Are Saying
Henry, in comments to Newsweek: “The State should not be allowed to keep secret information about its lethal injection chemicals from the prisoners it plans to kill or the public who are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for Tennessee to procure those chemicals.”
Smith, in an interview with The Associated Press before his execution:
“Why anyone wants to see anyone being killed, I don’t understand it. We’re supposed to be a civilized country.”
What’s Next
The next death row inmates scheduled to be executed in the U.S. are Anthony F. Wainwright in Florida and Gregory Hunt in Alabama. Both executions are scheduled for June 10.
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