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The Sun
23-05-2025
- The Sun
Pleading final words of death row's oldest inmate, 75, as he was executed by injection for killing wife & her two sons
DEATH row's oldest inmate left behind an eerie plea with his final words before being executed by lethal injection. Tennessee inmate Oscar Smith, 75, was put to death on Thursday morning for the 1989 murders of his ex-wife and her teenage sons in the state's first execution since 2020. 7 7 With his final words, Smith insisted that he was innocent and begged for the justice system to be reformed. He said: "Somebody needs to tell the governor the justice system doesn't work." Refuting his conviction one final time, Smith said: "I didn't kill her." He was pronounced dead at 10:47am on Thursday after receiving a lethal dose of the drug pentobarbital at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution. The Sun recently spoke to a former death row executioner who saw a killer's head burst into flames and a pastor who has accompanied with more inmates in their final minutes than anyone else. Smith was convicted of fatally stabbing and shooting his estranged wife Judith Smith, 13-year-old Jason Burnett and 16-year-old Chad Burnett. He murdered them at the home in Nashville, Tennessee, on October 1, 1989. Sentenced to death in July 1990, Smith spent almost 35 years on death row, and was its oldest inmate in the US. A county court judge denied a request to reopen the case in 2022 , despite some new evidence that another person's DNA had been on one of the murder weapons. The judge ruled that the evidence of Smith's guilt was overwhelming and that the new information did not change that. I'm a death row executioner - a killer's head burst into flames when I put him in electric chair Two of Smith's colleagues told the original trial that he asked them to kill Judith. He also had a history of violence and threats against the family. Further clinching the conviction was the fact that Smith took out insurance policies on all three of his victims. The court also heard that one of the teen victims could be heard screaming "Frank, no!" in the background of a 911 call at the time of the murders. Frank is Smith's middle name, and the one he used regularly. After Smith had been confirmed dead, Judith's two siblings said they still miss the three victims, all these years later. 7 7 Her sister, Terri Osborne, said the deaths are a reminder of the dangers of domestic violence. She said: 'We know it is an incredibly hard thing to do to leave a spouse who is abusing, but pray that this case becomes a call to action, encouraging those in danger to seek help before it's too late." Smith's execution was the first in Tennessee since 2020, and he chose the lethal injection - a cocktail of three drugs. He could alternatively have chosen to be killed in the electric chair. There has been significant controversy around the method in recent years - with Justice Sonia Sotomayor of the Supreme Court describing it as "the chemical equivalent of being burned at the stake". 7 7 In March, a double murderer called Brad Sigmon became the first person in the US to be executed by firing squad in 15 years. He reportedly kept breathing after being shot three times in the chest. Three special bullets were shot at his heart by three volunteer riflemen at the South Carolina Department of Corrections in Columbia. Sigmon, 67, was convicted of beating to death with a baseball bat his ex-girlfriend's parents, David and Gladys Larke, at their Taylors home in 2001. List of executions so far in 2025 January 31: Marion Bowman (South Carolina) February 5: Steven Nelson (Texas) February 6: Demetrius Frazier (Alabama) February 13: James Ford (Florida) February 13: Richard Tabler (Texas) March 7: Brad Sigmon (South Carolina) March 18: Jessie Hoffman (Louisiana) March 19: Aaron Gunches (Arizona) March 20: Wendell Grissom (Oklahoma) March 20: Edward James (Florida) April 8: Michael Tanzi (Florida) April 11: Mikal Mahdi (South Carolina) April 23: Moises Sandoval Mendoza (Texas) April 24: James Osgood (Alabama) May 1: Jeffrey Hutchinson (Florida) May 15: Glen Rogers (Florida) May 20: Benjamin Ritchie (Indiana) May 20: Matthew Johnson (Texas) May 22: Oscar Smith (Florida)
Associated Press
22-05-2025
- Associated Press
Tennessee man faces execution for killing his wife and her 2 sons, 3 years after surprise reprieve
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee man who killed his wife and her two teenage sons was scheduled to be executed on Thursday morning, three years after he was saved by a last-minute reprieve. Oscar Smith, 75, was scheduled to receive a lethal injection of the barbiturate pentobarbital at 10:10 a.m. Smith has always claimed to be innocent, and in an interview with The Associated Press recently, he primarily wanted to discuss the ways he felt the court system had failed him. He was convicted of fatally stabbing and shooting his estranged wife, Judith Smith, 13-year-old Jason Burnett and 16-year-old Chad Burnett at their Nashville, Tennessee, home on Oct. 1, 1989. He was sentenced to death by a Davidson County jury in July 1990 for the murders. In 2022, a Davidson County Criminal Court judge denied requests to reopen his case despite some new evidence that the DNA of an unknown person was on one of the murder weapons. The judge wrote that the evidence of Smith's guilt was overwhelming and the DNA evidence did not tip the scales in his favor. Tennessee executions have been on hold for five years, first because of COVID-19 and then because of missteps by the Tennessee Department of Correction. Smith came within minutes of execution in 2022 before he was saved by a surprise reprieve from Republican Gov. Bill Lee. It later turned out the lethal drugs that were going to be used on him had not been properly tested. A subsequent yearlong investigation turned up numerous other problems with Tennessee executions. The Correction Department issued new guidelines for executions in December. The new execution manual contains only a single page on the lethal injection chemicals with no specific directions for testing the drugs. It also removes the requirement that the drugs come from a licensed pharmacist. Smith's attorney, Amy Harwell, has characterized it this way: 'It's as if, having been caught breaking their own rules, TDOC decided, 'Let's just not have rules.'' The new protocols are the subject of a lawsuit filed by Smith and other death row inmates. A trial in that case is set for next January.
