Was Francis Smith, Who Served The Longest Prison Sentence In History (70 Years), Actually Innocent?
There’s plenty of reason to believe that a petty criminal who was convicted for his role in the murder of a night watchman and set a record for the length of his imprisonment was actually innocent
Depending on the crime or the recidivism rate, criminals can spend very long stints behind bars when convicted. The longest known prison stint in history was the 70 years served by Francis Smith for murder before he was paroled at the age of 97, but there’s actually a good possibility that he may have been innocent.
In 1949, the then-25-year-old Smith was a well-known (to police) small-time petty criminal accused of being one of two shooters in the murder of a night security guard named Grover Hart at the Indian Harbor Yacht Club in Greenwich, Connecticut. Upon establishing a crime scene, police determined the dual shooters based on forensic evidence found. In short order, they arrested George Lowden as one of the killers, and eventually worked out a plea bargain agreement where he named Smith as his accomplice.
Authorities used the deal to go full bore against Smith, while Lowden served only 17 years…
