A Tennessee inmate who once was saved from execution by a last-minute reprieve again faces the death penalty, and says the extra time he had on death row was worse than hell.
Three years ago, Oscar Franklin Smith narrowly avoided being put to death when Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee issued a last-minute reprieve, CNN reported. Smith's execution was stopped not because of an issue with his case or for humanity reasons but rather due to concerns with the lethal injection drugs. Thursday the state is expected to proceed with Smith's execution with new protocols.
Smith told CNN that the last three years have been "more than hell," adding that conditions at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville were poor.
Smith was sentenced to death for the 1989 murder of his estranged wife, Judith Robirds Smith, 35, and her two sons, 13-year-old Jason Burnett and 16-year-old Chad Burnett, USA TODAY reported.
"The boys were brutalized," retired Metro Nashville Police Department Detective Pat Postiglione told The Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network, in 2022. "True evil exists."
USA TODAY reported that the victims were shot and stabbed. Smith had been harassing his estranged wife, repeatedly threatening her. The outlet reported that according to court records, about a month before the murders, Smith had tied Judy up, raped her, and promised to kill her.
"Smith told Judy's father, 'You tell Judy that I've been playing with her with kid gloves, but now the gloves are coming off.' Another time he said that he would kill Judy if she ever left him," prosecutors said in court records according to USA TODAY.
Smith has denied committing the murders and maintains his innocence, CNN reported. Smith also has decried the use of capital punishment.
"It sounds like we're going back to medieval times, to the gladiators. People want to see blood sports," Smith told CNN. "Why anyone wants to see anyone being killed, I don't understand it. We're supposed to be a civilized country."
