TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Kate Prince on Apr 19, 2022

Death row inmate Oscar Franklin Smith yesterday filed a lawsuit claiming his First Amendment rights have been violated by Tennessee courts refusing to hear his case, the Tennessean reports. Smith has exhausted his appeals through local criminal courts, appellate courts and the state Supreme Court, which yesterday declined to hear his case. “Thus, despite having evidence that proves that he is not the person who handled the murder weapon, Mr. Smith has been shut out of state court,” he now argues. The new filing takes the case out of state courts and into the Middle District of Tennessee federal jurisdiction. Smith is asking the court to immediately stay his execution and stay his case until the courts hear a full case on the evidence Smith says has been revealed by new DNA testing. He is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Thursday night.