Current:Home > StocksOklahoma prepares to execute Michael DeWayne Smith for 2002 murders-LoTradeCoin
Oklahoma prepares to execute Michael DeWayne Smith for 2002 murders
View Date:2024-12-23 16:39:10
OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma is scheduled to execute a man Thursday for fatally shooting two people in Oklahoma City more than two decades ago.
Michael DeWayne Smith, 41, will become the fourth inmate in the nation this year to be put to death if he doesn't get a last-minute stay. Alabama, Texas, and Georgia already have carried out executions, according to a database kept by the Death Penalty Information Center.
Smith would be the first person executed in the state this year and the 12th since capital punishment resumed in 2021. He is scheduled to receive a lethal injection Thursday at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.
The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday denied his request, for the fourth time, for an emergency stay. Smith also was seeking an emergency stay at the U.S. Supreme Court. Smith claims he is innocent even and told the parole board he was hallucinating from drug use when he confessed to police.
His attorneys also have claimed he is intellectually disabled.
"I don't want to die, man," Smith told The Oklahoman, part of the USA TODAY Network, on Monday in a phone interview. "Who can ever be prepared to die, man? I sure don't want to die for something I didn't do."
Georgia executes man for 1993 murder:State's first execution since 2020
Michael DeWayne Smith's case
Smith was convicted at trial of first-degree murder for two fatal shootings in Oklahoma City on Feb. 22, 2002. Jurors agreed he should be executed for both deaths.
The first victim, Janet Moore, 40, was shot at her apartment. The second victim, Sharath Babu Pulluru, 24, was shot nine times at a convenience store then doused with lighter fluid and set on fire. Neither was Smith's original target, according to testimony at the 2003 trial.
At the time, Smith was 19 years old and a member of a street gang in Oklahoma City known as the Oak Grove Posse. He also was high on PCP and hiding from police, who had a warrant for his arrest on a 2001 murder case.
Prosecutors claim that Smith was initially looking for Moore's son, who he mistakenly thought was a police informant.
"It's her fault she died," Smith told police. "She panicked and she got shot. ... She like, 'Help! Help!' I'm like, I had to. I had no choice."
Smith then went to a convenience store and shot an employee, who Smith believed had made comments to a newspaper about a robbery at another store, prosecutors said. He instead killed Pulluru, who was filling in at the store for a friend.
The shootings in 2002 came days before a trial for two other gang members involved in the robbery was set to begin. Smith confessed to his roommate and a neighbor before his arrest, according to their testimony at his trial.
Smith was also convicted at a separate trial of second-degree murder for the fatal shooting of a man outside an Oklahoma City club on Nov. 24, 2001. He had admitted to police that he handed the gun to the shooter.
The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted 4-1 on March 6 to deny Smith clemency. That vote means Gov. Kevin Stitt cannot commute his sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Oklahoma's execution pace has slowed
Oklahoma resumed executions in late October 2021 after a hiatus of more than six years. By mid-2022, four had taken place, and 25 more were scheduled through the end of 2024.
The schedule proved to be too ambitious. Some inmates got stays, and the Oklahoma Department of Corrections had to be given more time between executions to reduce the stress on staff. The last execution was in November.
The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals was asked in January for even more time, 90-day intervals, once the next two executions are carried out.
"The present pace of executions, every 60 days, is too onerous and not sustainable," said Steven Harpe, the executive director of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections.
veryGood! (21)
Related
- After Baltimore mass shooting, neighborhood goes full year with no homicides
- More than 240 Rohingya refugees afloat off Indonesia after they are twice refused by residents
- Japan, China agree on a constructive relationship, but reach only vague promises in seafood dispute
- Healthy, 100-pound southern white rhinoceros born at Virginia Zoo, the second in 3 years
- Republican Scott Baugh concedes to Democrat Dave Min in critical California House race
- In death, one cancer patient helps to erase millions in medical debt
- Man accused of kidnapping a 9-year-old girl from New York park is charged with rape
- Police board votes to fire Chicago officer accused of dragging woman by the hair during 2020 unrest
- Homes of Chiefs’ quarterback Mahomes and tight end Kelce were broken into last month
- Tropical disturbance hits western Caribbean, unleashing floods and landslides in Jamaica
Ranking
- Bodyless head washes ashore on a South Florida beach
- Dwyane Wade Reveals the Secret to His and Gabrielle Union's Successful Marriage
- Spotify Wrapped 2023: Here's when you can get your playlist and see your stats
- Russian authorities ask the Supreme Court to declare the LGBTQ ‘movement’ extremist
- Trump on Day 1: Begin deportation push, pardon Jan. 6 rioters and make his criminal cases vanish
- 'I got you!' Former inmate pulls wounded Houston officer to safety after shootout
- Escaped murderer back in court over crimes authorities say he committed while on the run
- Japan, China agree on a constructive relationship, but reach only vague promises in seafood dispute
Recommendation
-
Black and Latino families displaced from Palm Springs neighborhood reach $27M tentative settlement
-
Amazon shoppers in 2024 will be able to buy a Hyundai directly from the retailer's site
-
California fugitive sentenced for killing Florida woman in 1984
-
US, partners condemn growing violence in Sudan’s Darfur region
-
How Alex Jones’ Infowars wound up in the hands of The Onion
-
Guatemalan prosecutors request that President-elect Bernardo Arévalo be stripped of immunity
-
Sarah Yarborough's killer had been in prison for attacking another woman, but was released early
-
You can watch 'A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving' for free this weekend. Here's how.