Francis Clifford Smith spent more than 70 years behind bars for a murder he always maintained he did not commit, becoming one of the longest serving prisoners in American history.
Smith was 25 when he was convicted of first-degree murder in 1950 for the killing of Grover Hart, a night watchman at the Indian Harbour Yacht Club in Greenwich, Connecticut. Hart had been shot during a robbery at the club in July 1949.
Smith was sentenced to death, but what followed was extraordinary. He faced eight scheduled execution dates and repeatedly received stays of execution. By his final scheduled execution in 1954, preparations had gone so far that his head had reportedly been shaved in preparation for the electric chair.
There were serious questions surrounding his conviction.
George Lowden, the man accused alongside Smith, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. A witness whose evidence had implicated Smith later recanted, while another man, David Blumetti, subsequently claimed responsibility for the killing. Perhaps most remarkably, Major Leo Carroll, an officer involved in Smith's arrest and investigation, eventually told the Connecticut Board of Pardons that he was not convinced Smith had killed Hart and was unsure whether Smith had even been present.
Smith's death sentence was eventually commuted to life imprisonment in 1954. Despite the questions surrounding the conviction, he was never exonerated and attempts to overturn it were unsuccessful.
His decades in custody weren't completely uninterrupted. Smith escaped from prison in 1967 and remained free for 12 days before being captured. He was paroled in 1975 but returned to prison later that year after violating the conditions of his parole.
In 2020, by then in his nineties, Smith was granted supervised parole and transferred to a secure nursing facility in Connecticut.
Francis Clifford Smith died there on 25 June 2026 at the age of 101. Until the end of his life, he maintained that he was innocent of Grover Hart's murder.
His story leaves an uncomfortable question. A man spent most of his life imprisoned under a conviction that was never overturned, yet significant doubts emerged about the evidence used to convict him.
Smith was 25 when he was convicted of first-degree murder in 1950 for the killing of Grover Hart, a night watchman at the Indian Harbour Yacht Club in Greenwich, Connecticut. Hart had been shot during a robbery at the club in July 1949.
Smith was sentenced to death, but what followed was extraordinary. He faced eight scheduled execution dates and repeatedly received stays of execution. By his final scheduled execution in 1954, preparations had gone so far that his head had reportedly been shaved in preparation for the electric chair.
There were serious questions surrounding his conviction.
George Lowden, the man accused alongside Smith, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. A witness whose evidence had implicated Smith later recanted, while another man, David Blumetti, subsequently claimed responsibility for the killing. Perhaps most remarkably, Major Leo Carroll, an officer involved in Smith's arrest and investigation, eventually told the Connecticut Board of Pardons that he was not convinced Smith had killed Hart and was unsure whether Smith had even been present.
Smith's death sentence was eventually commuted to life imprisonment in 1954. Despite the questions surrounding the conviction, he was never exonerated and attempts to overturn it were unsuccessful.
His decades in custody weren't completely uninterrupted. Smith escaped from prison in 1967 and remained free for 12 days before being captured. He was paroled in 1975 but returned to prison later that year after violating the conditions of his parole.
In 2020, by then in his nineties, Smith was granted supervised parole and transferred to a secure nursing facility in Connecticut.
Francis Clifford Smith died there on 25 June 2026 at the age of 101. Until the end of his life, he maintained that he was innocent of Grover Hart's murder.
His story leaves an uncomfortable question. A man spent most of his life imprisoned under a conviction that was never overturned, yet significant doubts emerged about the evidence used to convict him.