By Vanguard Staff
NASHVILLE — In a significant shift from previous practice, Tennessee officials placed death row prisoner Oscar Smith in nearly total isolation during the final two weeks of his life—a move critics describe as psychologically torturous and legally questionable.
Smith, 73, was executed on May 16, 2025, marking the state’s first execution since 2020. In the days leading up to his death, Smith was moved to what officials called an “enhanced cell,” where he was separated from all other prisoners, subjected to 24-hour surveillance, and denied access to anyone except his attorneys and, in a limited exception, his spiritual advisor.
The Nashville Banner first reported the state’s new death watch policy, which includes a “12-hour blackout” period before executions. During this time, the prisoner is denied all outside contact—including phone calls—and placed under even stricter isolation.
“This was completely unnecessary,” said Kelley Henry, Nashville Supervisory Assistant Federal Public Defender and one of Smith’s attorneys. “Now, it’s just two weeks of being reminded every second of every day that the state is going to kill you… Just watching the hours tick down.”
Henry called the revised protocol “retaliatory” and described it as “its own form of torture.” She added that Smith was barred from the long-standing traditions Tennessee death row prisoners had followed in the days leading up to an execution. These rituals, last observed in 2020 before the execution of Nicholas Sutton, typically included final goodbyes with fellow prisoners, shared meals, and visits from loved ones.
Instead, Smith spent 14 days under constant monitoring. “If you can imagine, for 14 days, every time you go to the bathroom, someone is watching. Every time you do anything, someone is writing it down,” Henry told the Nashville Banner. “It is added mental torture on top of everything else that is happening.”
In the final hours before his execution, Smith’s minister was permitted to be with him—one of the few concessions made under the new policy. According to the Banner, the minister administered communion, prayed with Smith, and stayed by his side during the execution.
Smith had long maintained his innocence in the 1989 killings of his estranged wife and two sons. He had previously come within hours of execution in 2022 before Governor Bill Lee issued a last-minute reprieve due to issues with the state’s lethal injection drug testing.
Smith was also one of nine death row prisoners involved in an ongoing lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Tennessee’s new execution protocols. The suit contests both the 12-hour blackout rule and the revised procedures surrounding the use of pentobarbital in lethal injections.
When asked about the rationale for the changes, Tennessee Department of Correction spokesperson Dorinda Carter stated that the policies were revised “to ensure lawful and effective procedures are followed in carrying out death sentences.”
Attorney Henry strongly disagreed. “There’s never been a problem in the two weeks up to an execution date, and there’s never been a problem on death watch itself,” she said.
Smith’s execution—carried out under a cloud of secrecy and procedural changes—has raised alarm among human rights advocates and legal observers who warn that the new policies may violate constitutional protections and human dignity.
