Oscar Smith to be executed Thursday in Tennessee: This is the list of U.S. states that still have the death penalty

A convicted murderer is set to become the first person to be executed in Tennessee in five years, despite an ongoing legal challenge against the Volunteer State’s new lethal injection protocol.

Oscar Smith is scheduled to be killed by lethal injection today, Thursday May 22, after Tennessee governor Bill Lee refused to give the 75-year-old a further stay of execution earlier this week.

“After deliberate consideration of Oscar Franklin Smith’s request for clemency, and after a thorough review of the case, I am upholding the sentence of the State of Tennessee,” Lee said in a statement on Tuesday.

When was the last execution in Tennessee?

The last person to be executed in Tennessee was Nicholas Sutton, in February 2020. Sutton was sentenced to death in 1986, after killing a fellow inmate while serving life for three previous murders.

Which other U.S. states have the death penalty?

Tennessee is one of 27 states in the U.S. that impose capital punishment, according to data compiled by the Death Penalty Information Center (DPI).

Of those states, four currently have a gubernatorial hold on executions, the DPI says. They are: California, Pennsylvania, Oregon and Ohio.

The 27 U.S. states that have the death penalty - full list:

• Alabama
• Arizona
• Arkansas
• California
• Florida
• Georgia
• Idaho
• Indiana
• Kansas
• Kentucky
• Louisiana
• Mississippi
• Missouri
• Montana
• Nebraska
• Nevada
• North Carolina
• Ohio
• Oklahoma
• Oregon
• Pennsylvania
• South Carolina
• South Dakota
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Utah
• Wyoming

How long has Smith been on death row for?

Smith has been on death row since July 1990, after he was convicted of murdering his estranged wife and her two sons in Nashville, Tennessee, in October 1989.

Smith, who maintains his innocence, was previously scheduled to be executed in April 2022.

However, he was given a stay when Governor Lee ordered an investigation into the Tennessee Department of Corrections’ (TDOC) execution protocol.

According to the DPI, Lee ordered the probe and halted all executions in Tennessee after it was found that the TDOC had failed to test its lethal injection drugs for potential contaminants.

In December last year, the TDOC announced that it had completed a review of its lethal injection process and would implement a new procedure, which uses a single dose of the drug pentobarbital.

Smith to be executed despite lawsuit

Smith is one of a group of death row inmates that filed a lawsuit against the use of pentobarbital in March; per the Associated Press, their suit claims that the suffering caused by the drug violates their constitutional rights.

However, Lee has opted against stopping Smith’s execution before that case comes to court early next year.

Speaking to AP, Smith said he had told his family not to attend his execution on Thursday, explaining: “They don’t need to see anything like that.”

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