HOUSTON (AP) — The oldest condemned man in Texas has died at age 78 of natural causes, a Texas prisons spokesman said Friday. The oldest condemned man in Texas has died at age 78 of natural causes, a Texas prisons spokesman said Friday. Jack Harry Smith had been on death row since October 1978 for a fatal shooting during a $90 robbery of a Houston store. Only three among about 250 prisoners now awaiting execution in Texas have been on death row longer. Oldest inmate on Texas' death row dies of natural causes :