Update: About 15 minutes before Oscar Smith was scheduled to be executed, Gov. Bill Lee released this statement: “Due to an oversight in preparation for lethal injection, the scheduled execution of Oscar Smith will not move forward tonight. I am granting a temporary reprieve while we address Tennessee Department of Correction protocol. Further details will be released when they are available.”
This originally aired during an episode of This Is Nashville about capital punishment in Tennessee. You can listen to the full episode here.
Common Hymnal kicked off the fourth March4Mercy on Easter Sunday with a piece about “about the dignity of life — what they love and what they fight for.”
Activist, author and one of the march organizers Shane Claiborne encouraged participants to stay peaceful during the walk from Riverbend Maximum Security Prison to the war Memorial Plaza in downtown Nashville.
“Even if people say mean things to us, we return it with love, amen? We’re not going to mirror anything ugly that’s said to us. We’ll keep that spirit of love and nonviolence,” he said.
Riverbend holds all the men on death row in Tennessee and is where executions are held. On Sunday, about 50 people met in a parking lot across the street from the prison.
Tasha A.F. Lemley As protesters get ready for their 9-mile March4Mercy on Easter Sunday, they pause for a photo in front of Riverbend Prison holding art representing the stations of the cross.
There was music, prayer and 14 portraits of Christ painted by men on death row. The paintings represent the Stations of the Cross or the timeline of Jesus’s last day — from conviction to being placed in a tomb.
The gathering looked much like a small outdoor church gathering, but this wasn’t any ordinary Easter service. Participants carried signs and banners opposing the death penalty during their nine-mile march coordinated by abolitionist groups.
Oscar Smith is scheduled to die on Thursday evening after Tennessee paused executions for more than two years because of the pandemic.
Marchers like Pai Masavisut believe there must be another way. He took classes inside death row while studying at Vanderbilt.
“I actually know some of the people who are scheduled to be executed,” he said. “We developed such good relationships with the people inside and we exchange our perspective. And yeah, they mean a lot to us, and we mean a lot to them.”
He said he grew frustrated when he saw members of his own Christian faith support, and even drive, capital punishment.
That’s a sentiment Shane shares. He said the Bible Belt is the death belt and the death penalty would not stand a chance in America if it weren’t for the support of Christians.
“It being Easter, almost all of these governors and legislators are in church today celebrating the defeat of death — the empty tomb,” he said. “It’s so apparent that we’ve missed the whole point of it sometimes. If you’re going to carry out an execution right after Easter, you might not understand the point of the crucifixion and the resurrection.”
“Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy,” said Shane, quoting the words of Jesus.
“The resurrection was not just a one-time event two thousand years ago, but something that should reorient the whole way we think about violence and execution — and what mercy really requires of us,” he continued.
The group arrived at War Memorial Plaza after walking for more than three hours. Amid the prayers, music and meditations, there were calls for change.
Tasha A.F. Lemley WPLN News (File)Justin Jones preaches at War Memorial at the conclusion of the Easter Sunday anti-death penalty March4Mercy.
Community organizer Justin Jones, who’s running as a Democrat for state House District 52, said the place where the marchers stood is a place memorializing death and violence.
“My question as we gather here in the center of Nashville: where are the Christians?” Jones asked. “Where are the conservative Christians who are so loud every day in this building, talking about what books children should read in schools and talking about who should marry who? But where are you now when it comes to the lives of our brother who, just a few days after Easter, will be crucified by the state?”
Jones said every execution by the state reenacts Christ’s crucifixion: “You are reenacting that public display of violence. And for what? And for what? There is no justice in state sanctioned violence. There is no healing in this.”
Vigils planned on Thursday for Oscar Smith’s execution:
- Pleasant Hill, TN: 5:00 p.m. CT at Pleasant Hill Community Church, 67 Church Street, 38578
- Memphis: 6:00 p.m. CT at Memphis Theological Seminary, 168 E. Parkway S., 38104 (Parking at Lindenwood Christian Church)
- Nashville: 6:30 p.m. CT at Second Presbyterian Church, 3511 Belmont Blvd., 37215
- Riverbend Maximum Security Institution: 6:15 p.m. CT, 7475 Cockrill Bend Blvd, 37209
- The Chapel of St. Henry’s Catholic Church (located around the back of the church building): 6 p.m. CT, 6401 Harding Pike, 37205
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