Meth Abuse Defense Doesn't Stay Execution

An Oklahoma judge ruled that brain damage from methamphetamine abuse was insufficient grounds to stay execution of Michael P. DeLozier.

Thursday, July 9th 2009, 5:53 pm

By: News On 6

Associated Press

MCALESTER, OK -- An Oklahoma appeals court has denied a last-minute attempt to spare the life of a McCurtain County man scheduled to die for the 1995 shooting deaths of two campers in southern Oklahoma.

Thirty-two-year-old Michael P. DeLozier is scheduled to receive a lethal injection at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.

DeLozier's attorneys argued new medical evidence shows years of methamphetamine abuse affected DeLozier's brain at the time of the killings.

But the state Court of Criminal Appeals on Thursday denied a last-minute request for a stay of execution and a new evidentiary hearing.

DeLozier received his last meal Thursday afternoon -- a T-bone steak, french fries and large salad. He will be the third inmate put to death in Oklahoma this year.