April 14 (UPI) — Attorneys for a Tennessee death row prisoner filed a motion Thursday to have their client’s execution date next week vacated.
Oscar Smith, 72, is scheduled to be executed April 21 for the 1989 murders of his estranged wife, Judy Robird Smith, and her two sons from a previous relationship, Chad Burnett, 16, and Jason Burnett.
Smith’s defense team asked the Tennessee Supreme Court on Thursday to vacate next week’s execution date in order to give an appeals court time to consider his case. The court filing said new touch DNA evidence discovered on the murder weapon warrants a reconsideration of the case. The DNA doesn’t belong to Smith, indicating another, known killer is responsible for the deaths.
Earlier this week, the state Supreme Court refused to reopen the case based on the newly discovered evidence.
“The technology that allowed the development of the DNA proof became available for the first time in 2022,” Smith’s lawyer, Amy Harwell, said in a statement to UPI. “This is not a case where a last-minute claim has been brought based upon long known facts or where a petitioner has slept on his rights.
“The development of cutting-edge science has allowed Mr. Smith to obtain new and previously unavailable facts that prove his innocence. The Tennessee Supreme Court should vacate the execution date to allow the justice system to fully and fairly litigate Mr. Smith’s DNA proof of his actual innocence.”
