Tennessee Executes Man 3 Years After Surprise Reprieve

UPDATE May 22, 2025 12:10 PM CDT

Tennessee inmate Oscar Smith was executed by lethal injection on Thursday morning for the 1989 murders of his estranged wife and her teenage sons. Smith was convicted in 1990 of fatally stabbing and shooting Judith Smith and her sons, Jason and Chad, 13 and 16, at their Nashville home, the AP reports. During his trial, a prosecutor said the boys were "heroes" who, instead of escaping, "chose to die defending each other and their mother," USA Today reports. Smith, the first inmate executed in Tennessee since early 2020, came within minutes of execution in 2022 before he was saved by a surprise reprieve from Republican Gov. Bill Lee.

May 21, 2025 7:40 AM CDT

Just over three years ago, Oscar Smith came within minutes of being executed before Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee issued a surprise reprieve that revealed problems with the lethal injection drugs. Asked in a recent phone interview about coming so close to death in 2022, Smith declined to reflect very deeply on it but instead expressed a wish that Lee had not intervened, saying the past three years on death row have been "more than hell." Without going into specifics, he said conditions at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville have deteriorated, and he accused its officials of not following policies. More:

• The crime: The AP reports Smith was convicted of fatally stabbing and shooting his estranged wife, Judith Smith, and her sons, Jason and Chad, 13 and 16, at their Nashville home on Oct. 1, 1989. A Davidson County jury sentenced him to death the following year. Smith has continued to claim that he's innocent.
• In attendance: Smith, 75, said he asked his family to not witness his execution Thursday because "they don't need to see anything like that." Some relatives of Smith's victims do plan to attend.
• A new protocol: Smith will be the first Tennessee inmate to be executed under a new lethal injection process released in December that uses a single dose of the barbiturate pentobarbital. The method has been used by other states and the federal government.

story continues below

• What the feds think: A review of the drug under President Biden's administration led then-Attorney General Merrick Garland to halt its use in federal executions, finding it had the potential to cause "unnecessary pain and suffering." Current AG Pam Bondi has ordered the Justice Department to reconsider that decision.
• A lawsuit: Smith is suing Tennessee over the update to the execution protocols, arguing the Tennessee Department of Correction failed to follow the recommendations of a yearlong independent investigation called for by Lee in 2022. However, that trial is not until next January—too late to change anything for Smith. Only Lee has the power to stop the execution. He said on Tuesday that he plans to let it go forward.
• The state's other option: Some Tennessee inmates in recent years have exercised the option of the electric chair. Smith, too, had the option, but declined to make a choice. "Because of my religious beliefs, I wouldn't participate or sign anything," he said. "I was taught that taking your own life, or having anything to do with it, is a sin."

(More death penalty stories.)