A death row inmate who killed his wife and her two teenage sons has no constitutional grounds on which to appeal his convictions and three death sentences, the Tennessee Supreme Court said Monday in an order setting a May 17 execution date.
Oscar Franklin Smith claimed in a petition filed with the state Supreme Court that his trial and appellate attorneys were ineffective. Justices, after reviewing the record in Smith’s case, denied his post-conviction application to appeal. In 1993, the Supreme Court also affirmed Smith’s convictions and sentences on direct appeal. Smith’s case may be continued in the federal court system.
Smith was found guilty in Davidson County of shooting and stabbing to death his estranged wife, Judy Smith, and her sons, Jason and Chad Burnett. Evidence presented at his 1990 trial included a 911emergency services tape recording in which Jason Burnett was heard crying, “Help me” and his brother is heard shouting, “Frank, no. God help me.” A bloody hand print, identified as Smith’s, was on the bed sheet next to Judy Smith’s body.
His post-conviction appeal was denied earlier by a state trial court and the Court of Appeals. Capital defendants are entitled to three stages of review under Tennessee and federal laws - direct appeal review, post-conviction review and federal habeas corpus review.