NASHVILLE, Tenn. — After a five-year pause, the state of Tennessee has resumed carrying out executions. On May 22, 2025, 75-year-old Oscar Smith became the first person executed since 2020, signaling a return to a practice that remains deeply divisive across the state. His execution by lethal injection was the first of four scheduled in the coming months.
The next person set to be executed is Bryon Black on August 5, followed by Donald Middlebrooks on September 24, and Harold Nichols on December 11. Tennessee currently houses 44 individuals on death row — 43 men and one woman — all under the supervision of the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC), which is responsible for enforcing court-ordered capital sentences.
As of this month, no individuals from Rutherford County are on death row. While the county has seen its share of high-profile murder convictions, none have resulted in a current death sentence. Most death row inmates in Tennessee originate from Shelby County (Memphis) and Davidson County (Nashville), reflecting the population density and higher rates of violent crime in those areas.
One of the more tragic and locally relevant cases tied to capital punishment stems from Bedford County, bordering Rutherford. In 1997, Daryl Holton murdered his four children after picking them up in Shelbyville. At the time, Holton’s estranged wife was living in Murfreesboro. Holton, a Gulf War veteran, requested death by electrocution and was executed in 2007 — the first person to die in Tennessee's electric chair in nearly five decades. He, along with his children, is buried at Simpson Cemetery in Eagleville.
The Holton case left a deep impact not only on the victims' family but also on Holton’s cousin, Rev. Tim Holton, now a United Methodist pastor. Rev. Holton serves on the board of Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (TADP) and ministers as a volunteer chaplain to inmates at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, where most of Tennessee’s death row inmates are held.
The state’s most recent death sentence was handed down in Anderson County to Sean Finnegan, convicted of the brutal 2019 murder of Jennifer Paxton. Finnegan was found guilty on 11 charges, including felony murder during aggravated rape and abuse of a corpse. His execution date has not yet been announced.
Tennessee's methods of execution have evolved over time. Since 2000, lethal injection has been the primary method, though inmates whose crimes occurred before 1999 may request electrocution. Historically, the state executed 125 people by electrocution between 1916 and 1960. Since the state’s founding, 139 individuals have been executed — 101 for murder, 36 for rape, and two for both crimes.
As capital punishment once again takes center stage in Tennessee’s legal and political landscape, the discussion continues around justice, deterrence, and redemption — especially in communities that have felt its effects firsthand, like Rutherford County.
