A man who was convicted of killing two people in Oklahoma more than two decades ago was executed Thursday, making it the state’s first execution this year. Michael Dewayne Smith died at 10:20 a.m. after being given a lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, according to the Department of Corrections.
The execution follows the state’s contentious decision to reinstate death punishment in 2021, after botched executions called its protocols into question.
When asked if he had any final comments, Smith said, “Nah, I’m good,” according to the Associated Press.
Smith, 41, was put to death in Oklahoma after being convicted two decades ago for the murders of Janet Moore, a 41-year-old mother, and Sharath Pulluru, a 22-year-old store worker. The shootings that murdered them occurred separately on February 22, 2002, while Smith was already on the run following a previous killing, according to officials.
Oklahoma’s execution process began at 10:09 a.m. on Thursday and lasted just over 10 minutes, according to state prisons director Steven Harpe, in a statement obtained by CBS News. Smith was deemed unconscious at 10:14 a.m., according to the report. According to the director, Smith requested that a spiritual counsel join him in the death chamber. The detainee did not request a final supper.
“Today’s event and the circumstances that led to it have affected many people — especially the family and friends of victims Janet Moore and Sharath Pulluru,” Harpe stated in a press release. “As an agency, we carried out the court’s orders according to our high standards of professionalism and respect for those in our custody, ensuring dignity for everyone involved in the process.”
Smith attempted to appeal his conviction several times over the course of his imprisonment, according to records. Among other grounds in his defense, Smith and his legal team have claimed that he is not responsible for either of the killings for which he was convicted, despite previously confessing to both. They argued for clemency on the basis of an alleged prior substance addiction issue and intellectual handicap because a U.S. Supreme Court decision on the latter would prevent Oklahoma from killing him. Smith’s appeals were all denied by the court.
Prior to a March hearing that sealed Smith’s fate, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond issued a formal request to the state’s Pardon and Parole Board, requesting that his clemency petition be denied.
“Michael Smith’s outrageous claims of innocence have been repeatedly rejected in court,” Drummond stated. “He is a merciless killer who has admitted to his atrocities on several times. I have no doubt that his request for clemency should be denied.
Drummond claimed that evidence discovered at the scene of both murders supported Smith’s confession. He also disregarded the inmate’s request for leniency based on an alleged intellectual handicap, stating that Smith’s IQ results made that claim “statutorily ineligible.”
At the court, Smith denied any involvement in the murders but expressed his “deepest apologies and deepest sorrows to the families” of the victims, according to the Associated Press.
“I did not commit these crimes.” “I didn’t kill these people,” Smith remarked with emotion. “I was high from narcotics. “I don’t even remember being arrested.”
Smith’s mercy plea was ultimately refused by the parole board on a 4-1 decision, and his execution was set to proceed.
Earlier this week, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals rejected Smith’s request for an emergency stay of execution, according to CBS affiliate KOTV. His third and last emergency plea to the criminal appeals court followed several that were denied in recent months, including one motion for post-conviction DNA testing, according to the station.
According to KOTV, the court stated that conducting additional tests would not change the validity of Smith’s conviction, citing the appeals court’s references to “a very detailed, highly corroborated confession” given to police, which was allegedly supported by other confessions and crime scene evidence.
Smith was one of 43 convicts on Oklahoma’s execution row. He was the first person killed there this year, and the twelfth since the state reinstated death punishment following a seven-year hiatus in 2021. That pause was prompted by a series of botched fatal injections in 2014 and 2015, most notably the botched execution of Charles Warner, a former death row inmate who witnesses claimed suffered unduly in the death chamber. Oklahoma was later determined to have utilized an inappropriate and illegal medication in the lethal injection combination used for Warner’s execution.
Oklahoma decided to halt executions while investigations into what went wrong were underway. However, the state resumed executions in late 2021, months before a court trial was scheduled to review its lethal injection process. When the state resumed executions, the first, of former convict John Grant, was botched by lethal injection.
Oklahoma passed its own state policy legalizing death punishment in 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. The first execution took place in 1990, and the state has killed 123 inmates since then. One federal execution was also carried out in Oklahoma.
Another Oklahoma death row inmate, 60-year-old Richard Glossip, is now appealing his sentence and has made progress with state officials, including the attorney general, who has publicly advocated his innocence. In January, the Supreme Court decided to consider Glossip’s case after Drummond asserted that flaws in his trial should invalidate the prisoner’s conviction and sentence.