Oscar Smith, 71, is scheduled to die by deadly injection on April 21.
He was convicted of fatally stabbing and capturing his estranged spouse, Judith Smith, and her two teenage sons, Jason and Chad Burnett, 13 and 16, at their Nashville dwelling on Oct. 1, 1989.
He was sentenced to loss of life by a Davidson County jury in July 1990 for the murders.
Mr Smith has maintained that he's harmless.
In a Monday submitting, Mr Smith's legal professional states that newly out there contact DNA expertise allowed the beforehand not possible evaluation of proof left on an axe — a leather-working device much like an ice choose — that was discovered on the crime scene.
The victims had been additionally shot and stabbed with a knife, though these weapons had been by no means recovered.
In January, the courts launched the axe to Smith's DNA specialists upon settlement between Smith and the state.
The evaluation discovered DNA from an unknown particular person.
Tennessee regulation permits defendants to reopen their circumstances beneath sure circumstances, together with the place new scientific proof establishes that they're really harmless. The petition to reopen a case have to be for “the aim of demonstrating innocence and to not unreasonably delay the execution of sentence or administration of justice.”
Mr Smith argues that though his execution date is close to, he couldn't have introduced the DNA proof any sooner as a result of the expertise permitting it to be analysed is model new.
Mr Smith beforehand sought to show that fingerprint proof used in opposition to him was unreliable. Crime scene investigators testified they discovered a bloody palm print on the sheet subsequent to Judy Smith's physique that was lacking two fingers — the identical two fingers that Oscar Smith is lacking on his left hand. A fingerprint knowledgeable employed by Mr Smith later stated that the investigator made quite a few errors and couldn't have definitively recognized the print.
In a single instance, the investigator's personal fingerprint was discovered on the axe, demonstrating “incompetence and lack of professionalism,” in accordance with Mr Smith's Monday submitting.
A panel of the Tennessee Felony Courtroom of Enchantment final month upheld a decrease court docket's ruling rejecting Smith's fingerprint evaluation claims.
Mr Smith has appealed.
“Whereas procedural technicalities have so far prevented the courts from reviewing new proof that reveals the fingerprint examiner who recognized Mr Smith overstated the case, an unknown particular person’s DNA on the homicide weapon have to be totally thought-about by the courts,” Mr Smith’s legal professional Amy Harwell stated in a press release on Monday.
A spokesperson for the Tennessee legal professional basic's workplace didn't instantly reply to a request for remark.