The Tennessee Supreme Court has rescheduled Oscar Smith's upcoming execution, granting a request from his attorneys, who said the execution should be stayed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Smith was set to die on June 4, but the court has set a new execution date for Feb. 4, 2021.
In a motion filed last month, Smith's attorneys argued that the pandemic has significantly disrupted their legal work on Smith's behalf. Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery's office opposed the motion, arguing that the execution should proceed. But the court sided with Smith.
Smith was sentenced to death in Nashville for the 1989 murders of his estranged wife Judy Smith and her two sons, Chad and Jason Burnett. Smith was one of four men scheduled to be executed this year. The other three Tennessee prisoners with 2020 execution dates are Harold Nichols on Aug. 4, Byron Black on Oct. 8, and Pervis Payne on Dec. 3.
"The Court was absolutely right to stay Oscar Smith’s execution because of the COVID-19 virus," says Assistant Federal Public Defender Kelley Henry via email. "It makes no sense to bring execution witnesses and other people into the prison and possibly expose them to COVID-19 infection or introduce the virus into the prison population. Mr. Smith, who has always maintained his innocence, needs to meet with his attorneys to prepare a clemency petition, and investigators need to interview people to get information for the clemency petition. None of that face-to-face work can happen at this time without risking public health."
In Texas, the state's Court of Criminal Appeals has stayed five executions in recent weeks due to the pandemic.
