Tennessee convicted murderer Oscar Franklin Smith was executed Thursday morning, the first execution by the state in five years.

Ahead of Oscar Smith’s execution Thursday morning for the murder of his wife and two of her children, people close to the case have expressed a wide span of thoughts and emotions leading up to this day.

Oscar Franklin Smith, 75, is scheduled to be the first to die by Tennessee’s new lethal injection protocol on May 22.

Governor Bill Lee declined to grant clemency for death row prisoner Oscar Franklin Smith. Governor Lee said, "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 and do not plan to intervene.”

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