A Connecticut prisoner believed to have served longer than any inmate in U.S. history has died at the age of 101.
Francis Clifford Smith was 25 when he was sentenced to death in 1950 for the murder of a night watchman in Greenwich. Before his execution was ultimately called off, he was reportedly served his final meal eight separate times.
Smith’s execution was delayed again and again, with his life spared amid developments that included witnesses taking back their statements and another inmate confessing to the killing, the BBC reported.
His death sentence was finally commuted to life imprisonment in 1954, just two hours before he was scheduled to die in the electric chair. Around that time, an investigator testified that he was not certain Smith had even been at the crime scene.
All told, Smith spent roughly 70 years in custody, a span believed to be the longest prison term ever served in the United States.
Although he was no longer physically behind bars, Smith was still serving his life sentence when he died on June 25. He had been on supervised parole while living at the 60 West nursing home in Rocky Hill, according to GreenwichTime.
“It’s quite remarkable to make it to 101, for anyone,” Andrius Banevicius, public information officer for the Connecticut Department of Correction, told the outlet. “Prison life is not great for longevity. It’s quite unusual.”
At the time of his death, Smith was also believed to be the oldest person in the U.S. still serving a criminal sentence, a category that included his parole status.
Convicted murderer Francis Clifford Smith, of Connecticut, was the longest serving inmate in US history. He was 101 when he died in June
Smith was sentenced to death in 1950 for the murder of a night watchman at a yacht club in Greenwich
A spokesman for 60 West, David Skoczulek, told the BBC on Wednesday that Smith had ‘essentially … died of old age.’
‘He had very limited family involvement around his passing but we assured it was appropriate, met his wishes and was dignified,’ Skoczulek said.
Banevicius told the outlet that Smith had been known as the ‘Birdman of Osborn’ while incarcerated at the Osborn Correctional Institute in Somers.
That was because he would ‘stuff as much bread as he could’ in his clothes to feed the birds.
‘Everyone kind of turned a blind eye to it,’ Banevicius told the outlet.
Smith was in prison for the July 1949 murder of Grover S Hart, a 68-year-old night watchman at the Indian Harbor Yacht Club in Greenwich.
Hart was shot by bullets from two different guns and died about two days later, GreenwichTime reported.
Eventually, Smith and another petty criminal, George Lowden, were arrested by police and linked to Hart’s murder through ballistic evidence.
Lowden took a plea in order to not be sent to the electric chair and offered evidence regarding Smith in the process.
Connecticut’s electric chair on display in Somers. It was last used in May 1960. Smith effectively stopped eight attempts to execute him
Hart, the night watchman Smith was convicted of murdering, died in July 1949 after being shot at the Indian Harbor Yacht Club in Greenwich (pictured)
He told authorities that Smith fired four shots at Hart, while acknowledging to have fired one shot himself.
However, Smith never confessed and maintained his innocence in Hart’s death at the yacht club.
He was convicted of first-degree murder by a jury in 1950 and subsequently put on death row.
However, questions persisted over Smith’s involvement in the murder, which stymied seven attempts to execute him.
Just before he was set to be killed on June 7, 1954, his death sentence was commuted to 25 years to life in prison by the Connecticut Board of Pardons.
Leo Carroll, a former Connecticut State Police major and the lead investigator in the case against Smith, was among those who spoke at a three-hour hearing.
He said that he was ‘positive [Smith] didn’t kill Grover Hart.’
‘I’m not even sure he was at the murder,’ Carroll said, according to GreenwichTime.
Smith was on supervised parole at the 60 West nursing home in Rocky Hill when he died
Smith holds the distinct honor of being the person with the longest prison sentence served in US history, but his time behind bars was not exactly uninterrupted.
In 1967, Smith escaped from prison and was recaptured after 12 days.
Roughly seven years later, Smith went home for Christmas Eve and returned to prison the following day.
Smith was granted parole in 1975 and free for approximately 10 months before being arrested and charged with larceny and possession of dangerous weapons, according to the Boston Globe.
Smith was not convicted, but he was sent back to prison for violating his parole, per the outlet.
His decades behind bars after that were quiet, with two of his last recorded visitors coming during Christmas Eve in 1993.
After that, Smith apparently refused parole until he was eventually convinced to apply in 2020.
His reasoning was that he had been ‘sitting here for a long time,’ and that he was already 95, according to the Boston Globe.
That led Smith to being paroled into the nursing home, where he spent the last six years of his life.
The Connecticut Department of Correction still listed Smith’s status as ‘sentenced’ and his current location as ‘nursing home,’ as of Wednesday.
Smith did not have a funeral and his body was cremated, according to the Boston Globe.
The Daily Mail has reached out to the Connecticut Department of Correction for comment.
