Francis Clifford “Frank” Smith, a US prisoner who survived eight scheduled execution dates and spent nearly 71 years behind bars, has died at the age of 101.
Smith died on June 25, 2026, while on supervised parole at a state-run nursing home in Rocky Hill, Connecticut, according to reports citing the Connecticut Department of Correction.
Smith was convicted of first-degree murder in 1950 over the 1949 killing of Grover Hart, a 68-year-old night watchman at the Indian Harbor Yacht Club in Greenwich, Connecticut. He was 25 at the time of his conviction and was sentenced to death by electrocution.
Hart was shot during a robbery at the yacht club on July 23, 1949. Smith was arrested alongside George Lowden, who later pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and testified against him.
Smith consistently maintained that he was innocent. His case later attracted controversy after witnesses recanted testimony, another prisoner claimed responsibility for the killing, and Leo Carroll, a police officer involved in the investigation, expressed doubts about Smith’s guilt.
Smith came within hours of being executed on his eighth scheduled execution date in June 1954. However, his death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment just two hours before he was due to be sent to the electric chair.
Although Smith remained imprisoned for decades, he was eventually paroled and moved to a nursing home in 2020. He spent nearly 71 years in custody, making his case one of the longest periods of imprisonment in US history.
Smith’s case continued to raise questions about wrongful convictions, the reliability of witness testimony and the treatment of ageing prisoners long after his death sentence had been commuted.
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