The state of Oklahoma executed Michael Dwayne Smith by lethal injection after denying the double murderer the right to tell authorities his last words: “No, I’m fine.”
Smith, 41, was pronounced dead by prison staff at 10:19 a.m. Thursday after receiving a lethal injection inside the Oklahoma State Penitentiary.
Although the killer claimed he did not remember the murder, his appeal for clemency was rejected. Smith was sentenced to death in February 2002 for the murders of Janet Moore, 41, and Sharath Pruru, 22.
Moore’s son, Philip Zachary Jr., and niece, Morgan Miller Perkins, were at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary to witness the execution, and Smith was shaken up after being given the first of three drugs, midazolam. I saw him trying to raise his head.
Oklahoma DOC Director Stephen Harp said after the execution that Smith “appears to have been suffering from some form of sleep apnea.”
A statement on behalf of Zachary and Miller Perkins said: “Justice has been served.”
Attorney General Gentner Drummond read a statement calling Moore “the rock of the family” and Purul an “inspiration.”
“Janet and Sharath were murdered simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. That was all that mattered. We are grateful that justice was served,” Drummond said.
Smith told the pardons commission last month that he denied even remembering the murder, saying he was “high on drugs” and “I don’t even remember being arrested.”
“I didn’t commit these crimes. I didn’t kill these people,” said Smith, who at times broke into tears during his 15-minute speech.
Despite his pleas, the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday denied his request for a stay of execution.
Smith has denied murder, but prosecutors said he was a ruthless gang member who committed the murder in a misguided act of revenge and confessed to the killing to police and others.
They claimed Smith was looking for Moore’s son and believed he had told police his location. Hours later, Smith ends up murdering Pruru, whom he believes has disrespected his gang during an interview with a newspaper reporter.
But Smith’s lawyers argued that he had an intellectual disability and should have been allowed to spend the rest of his life in prison.
Comes with post wire.
