A representative of Six Rivers Media will serve as a media witness to the scheduled May 22 execution of condemned killer Oscar Franklin Smith.
Content Director Rob Walters, a veteran journalist, will observe the lethal injection of Smith, 75. He is scheduled to be executed at 10 a.m. CST inside the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.
“It is essential for a free and independent press to bear witness to events of the highest consequence, including executions carried out by the state,†said Ron Waite, Six Rivers Media’s group publisher and chief operating officer.
“As a media organization, our role is to ensure transparency, accountability, and an accurate public record of actions taken in the name of the people. Six Rivers Media’s presence affirms our commitment to these responsibilities.â€
Six Rivers Media is the parent company of the ºÚÁÏÊÓƵ Press, the ºÚÁÏÊÓƵ, the Tomahawk in Mountain City, The Erwin Record and the Herald & Tribune in Jonesborough. Walters oversees all five newsrooms.
Walters will not be allowed to record or photograph the procedure. The Tennessee Department of Correction will issue Walters a pen and writing pad for notetaking purposes.
TDOC selected seven media witnesses through a drawing of eight applicants of recognized Tennessee news organizations. In addition to Walters, the other media witnesses are: Travis Loller, Associated Press; Kirsten Fiscus Bodenbach, The Tennessean; Steve Cavendish, Nashville Banner; Madeleine Nolan, Fox 17; Steve Mehling, WSMV; Catherine Sweeney, WPLN.
Victoria Howland, WKRN, was selected as an alternate.
In 1990, a Davidson County jury delivered the death penalty to Smith for the Oct. 1, 1989, triple murders of his estranged wife, Judith Robirds Smith, and her teenage sons — Jason Burnett and Chad Burnett.
Smith’s execution will be the first in Tennessee since Feb. 20, 2020, when Nicholas Sutton died in the electric chair, which he selected versus lethal injection.
TDOC gave Smith the option to die in the electric chair or by lethal injection. He declined to pick one, and lethal injection became the default method.
Tennessee executions paused after the state admitted it had not been following its 2018 lethal injection protocol. Among other things, TDOC was not consistently testing the execution drugs for potency and purity.
In 2022, Gov. Bill Lee issued a temporary reprieve to Smith, then 72, just hours before he was to be executed by lethal injection on April 21. In a statement, Lee said he had launched a third-party review of the testing oversight of the drugs to be used in the execution.
Earlier this year, the Tennessee Supreme Court agreed to schedule executions for four inmates, with Smith’s being the first one.
Two Death Row inmates are from Northeast Tennessee: Howard Hawk Willis, who was sentenced in Washington County in 2010, and Nickolus Johnson, who was convicted in Sullivan County in 2007. Neither has been given an execution date.
Willis was convicted and sentenced to death for the 2002 murders of 17-year-old Adam Chrismer and 16-year-old Samantha Leming Chrismer.
Johnson was convicted of shooting and killing a Bristol police officer in 2004.
