TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Kate Prince on Nov 3, 2021

The Tennessee Supreme Court last week set the execution dates of two death row inmates. The high court set an execution date of April 21, 2022, for Oscar Franklin Smith, who was convicted of murdering three family members in Nashville in 1989. Smith was originally scheduled to be executed in June 2020, but the execution was stayed due to COVID-19. Today’s order lifted that stay. An execution date of June 9, 2022, was set for Harold Wayne Nichols, who was convicted of rape and murder in Chattanooga in 1988. Nichols was scheduled to be executed in August 2020, but Gov. Bill Lee issued an executive reprieve last summer. That reprieve expired on its own terms in December. Read more from the Administrative Office of the Courts.