An Oklahoma man convicted in the murder of two people in Oklahoma City more than 20 years ago has been executed, marking the first death by capital punishment in the state this year.
Michael Dewayne Smith, 41, received a lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary on Thursday morning and was pronounced dead at 10:20 am, according to a spokesperson from the Oklahoma Department of Corrections.
According to Oklahoma DOC Director Steven Harpe, Smith declined to request a final meal.
The 41-year-old was convicted in the separate shooting deaths of Janet Moore, 41, and Sharath Pulluru, 22, in February 2002.
He is the first person executed in the state this year and the 12th since the state resumed capital punishment in 2021. This followed a nearly seven-year hiatus that came in response to a series of bungled executions.
During a clemency hearing last month, Smith apologized to the victims´ families while insisting that he was not responsible for their deaths.
‘I didn´t commit these crimes. I didn´t kill these people,’ Smith said. ‘I was high on drugs. I don´t even remember getting arrested.’
Michael Dewayne Smith, pictured in February 2021, died by lethal injection on Thursday morning. He was convicted in the double murder of two victims while high on drugs
Before the hearing, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond requested that Smith be denied clemency.
Smith killed both victims as part of a ‘double-murder spree simply because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time,’ Drummond said.
The inmate shed tears during his 15-minute address to the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board before he was denied clemency in a 4-1 vote.
After the first of three lethal drugs, midazolam, was administered on Thursday morning, Smith trembled and attempted to raise his head before his body slackened.
He then took several short, gasping breaths, which prompted Harpe to later remark that the man ‘appeared to have some form of sleep apnea.’
A doctor entered the execution chamber at 10:14 am and shook Smith before declaring him unconscious. He appeared to stop breathing about a minute later.
The doctor reentered at 10:19 am and checked for a pulse before Harpe announced the time of death.
Prosecutors described Smith as a gang member who was blinded by revenge when he killed both victims.
They argued that he murdered Moore as he was searching for her son, who he mistakenly thought had told police about his whereabouts.
Later that day, Smith fatally shot Pulluru, a convenience store clerk who Smith believed had badmouthed his gang during an interview with a news reporter.
Prosecutors asserted that he confessed his involvement in the murders to police and two other people.
But Smith´s attorney, Mark Henricksen, argued that Smith was mentally disabled, a condition only made worse by years of drug use.
He claimed his client was high on phencyclidine, a dissociative anesthetic, when he made the confession, and that key elements were not supported by facts.
The U.S. Supreme Court denied a stay of execution requested by Smith´s legal team on the morning of his death.
The 41-year-old’s family delivered a petition to Governor Kevin Stitt’s office on Wednesday, pleading for his help.
They claimed new evidence showed that witnesses were being coerced during the trial.
Smith released his own statement on the eve of his execution, stating, ‘My life is on the line.
‘Despite new evidence, my attorney Mark Henricksen has informed my family that he will be filing no further appeals on my behalf. I am releasing this statement to demand that Mr. Henricksen do his job and fight for my life.’
When given the opportunity to provide last words, Smith stated, ‘Nah, I´m good.’
Moore’s son, Phillip Zachary Jr., and niece, Morgan Miller-Perkins, watched the execution from behind one-way glass.
In a statement supplied to Attorney General Gentner Drummond, the families declared, ‘Justice has been served.’