Nov. 4 (UPI) -- The Tennessee Supreme Court on Thursday scheduled the executions of two death row prisoners whose previous dates had been delayed last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The court set an execution date of April 21 for Oscar Franklin Smith and of June 9 for Harold Wayne Nichols. Both men were originally set to be executed in 2020, but pandemic-related restrictions put off both.
Several scheduled executions were delayed last year in response to the pandemic. Executions in the United States fell to a three-decade low in 2020 -- 17.
Amy Harwell, a federal public defender who serves as Smith's attorney, took issue with Tennessee's plan to execute her client using the same three-drug cocktail Oklahoma used last week to execute John Grant.
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"Less than a week after the state of Oklahoma experienced the botched execution of John Grant, Tennessee has rushed to set an execution date," she said in a statement to the Nashville Scene.
"Tennessee proposes to kill Mr. Smith using the same three-drug protocol that caused Mr. Grant to seize, convulse and vomit before becoming unconscious. Federal litigation remains pending in the Tennessee Department of Corrections' use of this controversial execution protocol."
Smith was sentenced to death for the 1989 slayings of his estranged wife, Judy Smith, and her two sons, Chad Burnett and Jason Burnett.
Smith's lawyers said his case has been "plagued by multiple constitutional violations," accusing one juror of being biased and saying the jury as a whole considered inaccurate information from outside the courtroom. The defense team also said two jurors mistakenly believed a life sentence for Smith would have meant only 13 years in prison for him.
Nichols was sentenced to death for the 1988 rape and murder of 21-year-old Karen Pulley.
