Execution dates for two Tennessee men were announced Wednesday by the Tennessee Supreme Court.
Oscar Franklin Smith’s execution is set for April 21st, 2022. His original execution date of June 4th, 2020, was reset by the court for February 2021, and it stayed the execution due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Smith was convicted of killing three family members in Nashville in 1989.
Harold Wayne Nichols is set to be executed on June 9th, 2022. His original date was August 4th, 2020 but was delayed by executive reprieve from Governor Bill Lee in July 2020. That reprieve expired in December 2020. Nichols was convicted of rape and murder in Chattanooga in 1988.
The executions would be the first in the state since February 2020.
Here’s the breakdown of executions by race and convictions from July 1916 through February 2020:
• Black 86
• White 52
• Rape 36
• Murder 99
• Rape/murder 2
