An Oklahoma man convicted of murdering two people in Oklahoma City more than 20 years ago has been executed, marking the first capital death 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 a.m., according to an Oklahoma Department of Corrections spokesperson.
Smith refused to request a final meal. Head of Public Relations Kay Thompson told DailyMail.com that the inmate was provided with canteen items and that he was a vegetarian.
The 41-year-old was convicted of the 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 botched executions.
During a clemency hearing last monthSmith apologized to the victims’ families and insisted that he was not responsible for their deaths.
‘I did not commit these crimes. I didn’t kill these people,” Smith said. “I was on drugs. I don’t even remember getting arrested.
Michael Dewayne Smith, pictured in February 2021, died by lethal injection Thursday morning. He was convicted of separate fatal shootings that occurred while he was high on drugs.
The 41-year-old was convicted of the shooting deaths of Janet Moore, 41 (left), and Sharath Pulluru, 22 (right), in February 2002.
Smith received a lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary on Thursday morning and was pronounced dead at 10:20 a.m.
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 speech to the Oklahoma Board of Pardons and Paroles before he was denied clemency in a 4-1 vote.
After being administered the first of three lethal drugs, midazolam, on Thursday morning, Smith trembled and tried to lift his head before his body went limp.
He then took several short breaths, prompting Oklahoma DOC Director Steven Harpe to later comment that the man “appeared to have some type of sleep apnea.”
A doctor entered the death chamber at 10:14 a.m. and shook Smith before declaring him unconscious. He seemed to stop breathing about a minute later.
The doctor came back in at 10:19 a.m. and checked 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 while searching for his son, who he mistakenly thought had told police his whereabouts.
Later that day, Smith shot and killed Pulluru, a convenience store employee who Smith believed had spoken ill of his gang during an interview with a journalist.
Prosecutors said he confessed his role in the murders to police and two other people.
But Smith’s attorney, Mark Henricksen, argued that Smith was mentally disabled, a condition only worsened 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.
Smith had taken phencyclidine, a dissociative anesthetic, before confessing to police his involvement in the murders.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond read a statement on behalf of murder victim Janet Moore while standing between Moore’s son, Phillip Zachary, Jr., and niece Morgan Miller-Perkins.
The 41-year-old man’s family maintained their innocence and delivered a petition to Gov. Kevin Stitt’s office on Wednesday, asking for their help.
They said new evidence showed that witnesses were being coerced during the trial.
Smith issued his own statement on the eve of his execution, stating: ‘My life is at stake.
‘Despite the new evidence, my lawyer Mark Henricksen has informed my family that he will not be filing any further appeals on my behalf. I make this statement public to demand that Mr. Henricksen do his job and fight for my life.’
His legal team requested a stay of execution the morning of his death, but the US Supreme Court rejected it.
When given the opportunity to give the final words, Smith said, “No, I’m fine.”
Moore’s son, Phillip Zachary Jr., and niece, Morgan Miller-Perkins, watched the execution from behind one-way glass.
In a statement provided to Attorney General Gentner Drummond, the families declared: “Justice has been served.”