Oklahoma executes man for 2001 murders of two hotel workers

Oklahoma executed a man on Thursday for the murders of two hotel workers during a robbery in 2001.

Donald Grant, 46, received a lethal injection at the Oklahoma state penitentiary in McAlester and was declared dead at 10.16am. It was the first execution in the US in 2022 and the third in Oklahoma since the state resumed lethal injections in October following a nearly seven-year hiatus.

Several Oklahoma death row inmates with pending execution dates have sought to delay their executions after John Grant convulsed on the gurney and vomited after receiving the first dose of a sedative during his October execution.

During a clemency hearing in November, Donald Grant admitted killing Brenda McElyea and Felicia Suzette Smith so that there would be no witnesses to his robbery of the Del City hotel. Court records show both women were shot and stabbed, and Smith was also bludgeoned. Prosecutors say both women also begged him to spare their lives before he killed them.