James Seidel 
Tennessee’s Oldest Death Row Prisoner Faces Fourth Execution Date After Declining to Choose Method
By James Seidel | CC News Network
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee’s Oldest Death Row Prisoner: For the fourth time in 35 years, Oscar Franklin Smith is staring down an execution date. And for the fourth time, the 75-year-old has refused to choose between Tennessee’s electric chair and lethal injection — a decision that locks him into the state’s default method of lethal injection on May 22.
Smith was convicted in 1990 of killing his estranged wife, Judith Robirds Smith, 35, and her two teenage sons, Chad, 16, and Jason Burnett, 13, in their Woodbine home on Oct. 1, 1989. Prosecutors said Smith, missing two fingers on his right hand, left a distinctive bloody palm print on a bedsheet next to his wife’s body and wielded multiple weapons — a .22-caliber pistol, a knife and a leather-working awl — in what detectives call one of Nashville’s most brutal triple homicides.
Frantic 911 Call
At 11:22 p.m. that night, a Metro Nashville dispatcher answered a panicked call.
“Help me!” Jason yelled, followed by muffled screams: “Frank, no! God help me!”
Patrol officers dispatched to the address found nothing amiss from the street and left. Fifteen hours later, an 8-year-old relative found the bodies inside — throats slashed, multiple stab wounds and gunshots. Investigators discovered the phone ripped from the wall, blood spatter in nearly every room, and a lone left-handed glove soaked in blood.
Death Row: Motive and Conviction
Jurors heard testimony that Smith was embroiled in a custody battle over his 3-year-old twin boys and that Judith had filed multiple domestic-violence complaints. Co-workers said Smith threatened to kill “all four” if the custody fight did not go in his favor. A Davidson County jury convicted him of three counts of first-degree murder and sentenced him to death on July 26, 1990.
Four Execution Dates, One Botched Attempt
| Date | Outcome |
|---|---|
| June 2009 | Stayed on appeal |
| June 2020 | Postponed amid COVID-19 |
| April 21, 2022 | Halted one hour before injection after drug-testing error |
| May 22, 2025 | Set under new single-drug protocol |
Gov. Bill Lee paused all executions in 2022 after officials failed to test lethal-injection drugs for contaminants. A three-year moratorium, an independent audit and a new pentobarbital-only protocol followed. Smith’s refusal to choose a method in 2022 ironically kept him alive; the reprieve now ends with the same choice declined.
Death Row: Ongoing Appeals
Smith, who maintains his innocence, is seeking clemency and moved this month to reopen his case citing new DNA on the awl that does not match him. Prosecutors argue the sample is “low-level, mixed” and would not have swayed jurors. A federal lawsuit filed by dozens of inmates, including Smith, claims Tennessee’s lethal injection “burns and suffocates” prisoners, violating the Eighth Amendment.
Other Death-Row Dates in 2025
Byron Lewis Black — Aug. 5
Donald Ray Middlebrooks — Sept. 24
Harold Wayne Nichols — Dec. 11
Smith’s attorney Kelley Henry said her client’s latest refusal is “a principled stance” against a system he believes is flawed. Under Tennessee statute, inmates whose crimes pre-date 1999 may opt for electrocution; failing to choose defaults to lethal injection.
If the appeals fail and the governor denies clemency, Smith will become the first prisoner executed in Tennessee since February 2020 — and the first under the state’s revised, single-drug protocol.
James Seidel covers courts and capital punishment for CC News Network. Reach him at [email protected] or follow @CCNewsNetwork.
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