Michael Dewayne Smith was executed decades after a double murder in Oklahoma
2 hours ago The US state of Oklahoma has executed its first execution of 2024, Michael Dewayne Smith, convicted of murdering Janet Moore and Sarath Babu Pulluru in 2002. Smith, who was 19 when the murders were committed, is the 12th person executed in Oklahoma since the state resumed imposing capital punishment in 2021. The execution took place at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester and Smith died within minutes of receiving the lethal injection. The state had been avoiding executions for nearly seven years due to health issues, including a recent case where a condemned prisoner writhed in pain for 43 minutes before dying of a heart attack.
Published : 4 weeks ago by Camilo Morgan in General
Michael Dewayne Smith was executed decades after a double murder in Oklahoma
The US state of Oklahoma has carried out its first execution of 2024, administering a lethal injection to a man convicted of a double murder.
Michael Dewayne Smith was 19 when he killed Janet Moore and Sarath Babu Pulluru during a drug crime spree in Oklahoma City in 2002.
Asked if he had any final words, Smith, 41, said: “No, I’m fine.”
He is the 12th person executed in Oklahoma since the state resumed imposing capital punishment in 2021.
The nearly seven-year pause came after a series of problems arose with executions.
In 2014, a condemned prisoner writhed in obvious pain for 43 minutes before dying of a heart attack. The next year, an executed prisoner told witnesses, “It feels like acid” and “my body is burning.”
Smith’s murders were committed while he was already on the run after being shot a year earlier.
Janet Moore was killed when he went to her home looking for her son, who Smith believed was a police informant.
In another attack, Sarath Babu Pulluru was killed when Smith mistook him for another supermarket employee who had made comments to a local newspaper about Smith’s criminal gang.
According to reporters who witnessed the attack at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, Smith died within minutes of receiving the deadly three-drug cocktail.
He was pronounced dead at 10:20 a.m. ET on Thursday, the Department of Corrections confirmed to CBS News, the BBC’s media partner in the United States.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond released a statement after Smith was declared dead: “I am grateful that justice has been served.”
Janet Moore’s family also released a statement declaring that “justice has been served” and thanked authorities for enforcing the punishment over the past 22 years.
“It does not go unnoticed or in vain, as we have been constantly reminded that this is justice for a loss that has repercussions for generations,” the family wrote.
Sarath Babu Pulluru’s family said in a statement that Sharath “will live in our hearts forever.”
Topics: Crime, Murder