Francis Clifford Smith, who spent more than seven decades under Connecticut\u2019s correctional system, died on June 25, 2026, at the age of 101. Convicted of the 1949 murder of night watchman Grover S. Hart, Smith was sentenced to death but had his sentence commuted to life in 1954 after years of legal challenges and repeated execution dates. He continued to maintain his innocence, while questions about the evidence and later claims involving another suspect kept the case controversial. Known in prison as the \u201cBirdman of Osborn\u201d for feeding birds, Smith eventually lived under supervised parole in a nursing facility before his death, leaving behind one of the longest and most unusual incarceration stories in American history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Francis Clifford Smith, who spent more than seven decades under Connecticut\u2019s correctional system, died on June 25, 2026, at the age of 101. Convicted of the 1949… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n