Tennessee death row inmate Oscar Smith, who was granted a temporary reprieve three years ago, died by lethal injection Thursday for the 1989 murders of his estranged wife Judith Smith and her teenage sons, Jason and Chad Burnett.
Smith, 75, was scheduled to receive a lethal injection of the barbiturate pentobarbital at 10:10 a.m. on Thursday. The 75-year-old had maintained his innocence, 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 Judith Smith, 13-year-old Jason Burnett and 16-year-old Chad Burnett at their Nashville, Tennessee, home on October 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.
Two of Smith’s co-workers testified at trial that he had solicited them to kill Judith Smith, and he had a history of threats and violence against her and the boys. Smith had also taken out insurance policies on all three victims. And one of the child victims could be heard yelling what prosecutors said was, “Frank, no!” in the background of a 911 call on the night of the murder. Frank is Smith’s middle name and the one that he used regularly.
Darlene Kimbrough, who knows Smith through her visits to another inmate on death row over the past decade, said she sent him a card recently.
It just said, “‘I hope you know that you are loved,’” Kimbrough said.
Unexpectedly, she received a letter in reply on Tuesday, thanking her. She thinks that Smith was at peace with the idea of death, she said.
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 had not been properly tested. A 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 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 said, “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.
