A convicted killer, who was executed for murdering two women, declined a final meal.
Death row inmates typically use the last opportunity to enjoy their favorite food – whether it's steak, mint ice cream, or lobster tail – after years of eating prison food. KFCHowever, Michael Dewayne Smith, 41, broke from tradition in the hours before he received a lethal injection at Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester this morning.
Instead, the vegetarian 'ate some of his remaining canteen items', according to an Oklahoma Department of Corrections spokesperson.
Smith spent over 20 years on death row after being convicted of shooting Janet Moore, 41, and Sharath Pulluru, 22, in February 2002. Metro.co.uk.
He killed his victims in misguided acts of revenge, as per prosecutors' claims.
They assert that the gang member murdered Ms. Moore while searching for her son, whom he believed had disclosed his location to the police.
He also killed convenience store clerk Ms. Pulluru later that day, believing she had disrespected his gang during an interview with a newspaper reporter, they said.
Janet Moore’s son, Phillip Zachary, Jr., holds a picture of his murdered mother as he stands next to her niece Morgan Miller-Perkins and Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond (Picture: Sean Murphy/AP)
According to his lawyer, Mark Henricksen, Smith's confession to the police was made under the influence of
a drug called PCP , and key elements of his confession are not supported by the evidence.Smith claimed that when he spoke at a clemency hearing last month, he had been too ‘high on drugs’ to ‘even remember getting arrested’.
Smith, occasionally breaking into tears, expressed his 'deepest sorrows' to the victims’ families, but denied his involvement.
During the 15-minute address to the board, he said: ‘I didn’t commit these crimes. I didn’t kill these people.’
Mr. Henricksen stated that Smith had an intellectual disability exacerbated by years of heavy drug use.
He argued that Smith's life should be spared, with the remainder spent in prison.
The board rejected Smith's request for clemency by a vote of four to one.
Smith’s lawyers sought a
stay of execution from the Supreme Court , but this was denied on Thursday morning. He was executed by lethal injection on the same day and was pronounced dead at 10.20am.
Smith was the first person executed in the US state this year, and the 12th since Oklahoma resumed executions in 2021.
Oklahoma, once one of the most active states for carrying out executions in the US, had a nearly seven-year break due to death row inmates' constitutional challenge following a series of botched lethal injections.
In 2002, Michael Dewayne Smith fatally shot two women.
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