The State of Oklahoma executed Michael Dewayne Smith by lethal injection after the double murderer denied his right to deliver any last words, telling officials: “Nah, I’m good.”
Smith, 41, was pronounced dead at 10:19 a.m. by prison officials inside the Oklahoma State Penitentiary after undergoing lethal injection Thursday.
The killer, who claims he doesn’t remember the murders, had his clemency pleas denied. Smith was given the death penalty for the killing of Janet Moore, 41, and Sharath Pulluru, 22, in February 2002.
Moore’s son, Phillip Zachary Jr. and niece Morgan Miller-Perkins were at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary to witness the execution, which saw Smith shaking and trying to lift his head after being administered the first of three drugs, midazolam.
Oklahoma DOC Director Steven Harpe said after the execution that Smith “appeared to have some form of sleep apnea.”
A statement on behalf of Zachary and Miller-Perkins said that “justice had been served.”
Attorney General Gentner Drummond read a statement that called Moore the “rock of her family” and Pulluru an “inspiration.”
“Janet and Sharath were murdered simply because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time; that was all. I am grateful that justice has been served,” Drummond said.
For Smith’s part, he denies even remembering the murders, saying he was “high on drugs” and doesn’t even “remember getting arrested,” he told a clemency board last month.
“I didn’t commit these crimes. I didn’t kill these people,” Smith said, who occasionally broke into tears during his 15-minute address.
Despite his pleas, the US Supreme Court denied his request to delay his execution Thursday.
Even though Smith denies the murders, prosecutors have said that he was a ruthless gang member who killed in misguided acts of revenge and that he had confessed the killings to police and others.
They claimed Smith was looking for Moore’s son, who he thought had told police his whereabouts. Hours later, Smith would kill Pulluru, who Smith believed had disrespected his gang during an interview with a newspaper reporter.
Smith’s lawyer, however, argued he was intellectually disabled and he should have been allowed to spend the rest of his life in prison.
With Post wires.