{"id":2537,"date":"2026-08-22T05:07:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T05:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blueroutejournal.com\/?p=2537"},"modified":"2026-08-22T05:07:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T05:07:10","slug":"americas-longest-serving-prisoner-dies-at-101-after-dodging-execution-8-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blueroutejournal.com\/?p=2537","title":{"rendered":"America\u2019s Longest-Serving Prisoner Dies At 101 After Dodging Execution 8 Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<p>The man believed to hold the record for the longest prison sentence served died while incarcerated just months before his 102nd birthday.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/blueroutejournal.com\/?p=2535\">The Most Shocking Moments From The Lindsay Clancy Trial<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span>Francis Clifford Smith died in June after serving seventy years in prison and avoiding execution on eight different occasions. Smith was sentenced to death when he was twenty-five years old for the fatal shooting of Grover Hart, a 68-year-old security guard for a yacht club in Connecticut during an attempted robbery on July 23, 1949. George Lowden was also arrested in connection with Hart\u2019s death, but took a plea deal that implicated Smith.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The Boston Globe reported that over the course of seventy years, Smith was scheduled for execution eight times, but was repeatedly spared. Questions around Smith\u2019s innocence helped secure the many stays of execution. Smith maintained his innocence to the day that he died, telling the Boston Globe, \u201cI\u2019m in here on no evidence at all.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>One of the officers who had interrogated Smith after his arrest and before his eighth scheduled execution said, \u201cI\u2019m not even sure he was present at the murder.\u201d However, a judge who reviewed another man\u2019s confession to the murder of Hart said it wasn\u2019t credible, leaving Smith\u2019s murder conviction intact.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/blueroutejournal.com\/?p=2534\">WNBA Team\u2019s New She\/They Mascot Is A Taurus DJ Who Loves Tacos<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span>Besides a brief ten-month parole in 1975 and twelve days in 1967, Smith was behind bars for seventy years. His parole ended when he was arrested on larceny and weapon charges. He also managed to escape prison for about two weeks in 1967. Smith later declined parole, but he said he could not remember doing so. In 2020, he was transferred to supervised parole at a secured Connecticut nursing facility that cares for elderly prisoners.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>One of Connecticut\u2019s Department of Correction public information officers told the BBC that Smith was \u201c101 and a half. He did pretty well as far as longevity is concerned.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span> Smith died in his sleep and was cremated. <\/span><span>\u201cHe had very limited family involvement around his passing, but we assured it was appropriate, met his wishes, and was dignified,\u201d said the nursing home\u2019s spokesman, David Skoczulek.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/blueroutejournal.com\/?p=2532\">Socialist Senate Nominee Called Charlie Kirk Supporters Tools \u2018Of White Supremacy\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The man believed to hold the record for the longest prison sentence served died while incarcerated just months before his 102nd birthday.Francis Clifford Smith died in June after serving seventy years in prison and avoiding execution on eight different occasions. Smith was sentenced to death when he was twenty-five years old for the fatal shooting of Grover Hart, a 68-year-old security guard for a yacht club in Connecticut during an attempted robbery on July 23, 1949. George Lowden was also arrested in connection with Hart\u2019s death, but took a plea deal that implicated Smith.The Boston Globe reported that over the course of seventy years, Smith was scheduled for execution eight times, but was repeatedly spared. Questions around Smith\u2019s innocence helped secure the many stays of execution. Smith maintained his innocence to the day that he died, telling the Boston Globe, \u201cI\u2019m in here on no evidence at all.\u201d\u00a0One of the officers who had interrogated Smith after his arrest and before his eighth scheduled execution said, \u201cI\u2019m not even sure he was present at the murder.\u201d However, a judge who reviewed another man\u2019s confession to the murder of Hart said it wasn\u2019t credible, leaving Smith\u2019s murder conviction intact.\u00a0Besides a brief ten-month parole in 1975 and twelve days in 1967, Smith was behind bars for seventy years. His parole ended when he was arrested on larceny and weapon charges. He also managed to escape prison for about two weeks in 1967. Smith later declined parole, but he said he could not remember doing so. In 2020, he was transferred to supervised parole at a secured Connecticut nursing facility that cares for elderly prisoners.\u00a0One of Connecticut\u2019s Department of Correction public information officers told the BBC that Smith was \u201c101 and a half. He did pretty well as far as longevity is concerned.\u201d Smith died in his sleep and was cremated. \u201cHe had very limited family involvement around his passing, but we assured it was appropriate, met his wishes, and was dignified,\u201d said the nursing home\u2019s spokesman, David Skoczulek.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2536,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>America\u2019s Longest-Serving Prisoner Dies At 101 After Dodging Execution 8 Times - Blue Route Journal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blueroutejournal.com\/?p=2537\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"America\u2019s Longest-Serving Prisoner Dies At 101 After Dodging Execution 8 Times - Blue Route Journal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The man believed to hold the record for the longest prison sentence served died while incarcerated just months before his 102nd birthday.Francis Clifford Smith died in June after serving seventy years in prison and avoiding execution on eight different occasions. Smith was sentenced to death when he was twenty-five years old for the fatal shooting of Grover Hart, a 68-year-old security guard for a yacht club in Connecticut during an attempted robbery on July 23, 1949. George Lowden was also arrested in connection with Hart\u2019s death, but took a plea deal that implicated Smith.The Boston Globe reported that over the course of seventy years, Smith was scheduled for execution eight times, but was repeatedly spared. Questions around Smith\u2019s innocence helped secure the many stays of execution. Smith maintained his innocence to the day that he died, telling the Boston Globe, \u201cI\u2019m in here on no evidence at all.\u201d\u00a0One of the officers who had interrogated Smith after his arrest and before his eighth scheduled execution said, \u201cI\u2019m not even sure he was present at the murder.\u201d However, a judge who reviewed another man\u2019s confession to the murder of Hart said it wasn\u2019t credible, leaving Smith\u2019s murder conviction intact.\u00a0Besides a brief ten-month parole in 1975 and twelve days in 1967, Smith was behind bars for seventy years. His parole ended when he was arrested on larceny and weapon charges. He also managed to escape prison for about two weeks in 1967. Smith later declined parole, but he said he could not remember doing so. In 2020, he was transferred to supervised parole at a secured Connecticut nursing facility that cares for elderly prisoners.\u00a0One of Connecticut\u2019s Department of Correction public information officers told the BBC that Smith was \u201c101 and a half. He did pretty well as far as longevity is concerned.\u201d Smith died in his sleep and was cremated. \u201cHe had very limited family involvement around his passing, but we assured it was appropriate, met his wishes, and was dignified,\u201d said the nursing home\u2019s spokesman, David Skoczulek.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blueroutejournal.com\/?p=2537\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Blue Route Journal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-22T05:07:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blueroutejournal.com\\\/?p=2537#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blueroutejournal.com\\\/?p=2537\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blueroutejournal.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/19da116f8d79cf8987781569801c6b7c\"},\"headline\":\"America\u2019s Longest-Serving Prisoner Dies At 101 After Dodging Execution 8 Times\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-22T05:07:10+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blueroutejournal.com\\\/?p=2537\"},\"wordCount\":392,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blueroutejournal.com\\\/?p=2537#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blueroutejournal.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/eb10809cb27408dba58925df74bf0d10.avif\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blueroutejournal.com\\\/?p=2537#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blueroutejournal.com\\\/?p=2537\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blueroutejournal.com\\\/?p=2537\",\"name\":\"America\u2019s Longest-Serving Prisoner Dies At 101 After Dodging Execution 8 Times - 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Smith was sentenced to death when he was twenty-five years old for the fatal shooting of Grover Hart, a 68-year-old security guard for a yacht club in Connecticut during an attempted robbery on July 23, 1949. George Lowden was also arrested in connection with Hart\u2019s death, but took a plea deal that implicated Smith.The Boston Globe reported that over the course of seventy years, Smith was scheduled for execution eight times, but was repeatedly spared. Questions around Smith\u2019s innocence helped secure the many stays of execution. Smith maintained his innocence to the day that he died, telling the Boston Globe, \u201cI\u2019m in here on no evidence at all.\u201d\u00a0One of the officers who had interrogated Smith after his arrest and before his eighth scheduled execution said, \u201cI\u2019m not even sure he was present at the murder.\u201d However, a judge who reviewed another man\u2019s confession to the murder of Hart said it wasn\u2019t credible, leaving Smith\u2019s murder conviction intact.\u00a0Besides a brief ten-month parole in 1975 and twelve days in 1967, Smith was behind bars for seventy years. His parole ended when he was arrested on larceny and weapon charges. He also managed to escape prison for about two weeks in 1967. Smith later declined parole, but he said he could not remember doing so. In 2020, he was transferred to supervised parole at a secured Connecticut nursing facility that cares for elderly prisoners.\u00a0One of Connecticut\u2019s Department of Correction public information officers told the BBC that Smith was \u201c101 and a half. He did pretty well as far as longevity is concerned.\u201d Smith died in his sleep and was cremated. \u201cHe had very limited family involvement around his passing, but we assured it was appropriate, met his wishes, and was dignified,\u201d said the nursing home\u2019s spokesman, David Skoczulek.\u00a0","og_url":"https:\/\/blueroutejournal.com\/?p=2537","og_site_name":"Blue Route Journal","article_published_time":"2026-08-22T05:07:10+00:00","author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/blueroutejournal.com\/?p=2537#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blueroutejournal.com\/?p=2537"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/blueroutejournal.com\/#\/schema\/person\/19da116f8d79cf8987781569801c6b7c"},"headline":"America\u2019s Longest-Serving Prisoner Dies At 101 After Dodging Execution 8 Times","datePublished":"2026-08-22T05:07:10+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blueroutejournal.com\/?p=2537"},"wordCount":392,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blueroutejournal.com\/?p=2537#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/blueroutejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/eb10809cb27408dba58925df74bf0d10.avif","articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/blueroutejournal.com\/?p=2537#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blueroutejournal.com\/?p=2537","url":"https:\/\/blueroutejournal.com\/?p=2537","name":"America\u2019s Longest-Serving Prisoner Dies At 101 After Dodging Execution 8 Times - 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