Whether the defendant's due process rights were violated by the admission of false testimony that corroborated his confession in a capital murder trial

1. Whether Mr. Smith’s first degree murder convictions and sentence of death are unreliable and in violation of his constitutional rights to due process and a fair trial because false testimony was used to corroborate Mr. Smith’s confession? ‘As of the time of this filing, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals has not yet ruled on Petitioner’s Successive Application For Post Conviction Relief and Emergency Application For Stay of Execution filed April 2, 2024. Assuming that these are denied, undersigned counsel submits the following questions would be presented to this Court in a petition for certiorari. APPLICATION FOR STAY To the Honorable Neil Gorsuch, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and circuit Justice for the Tenth Circuit. Petitioner, Michael DeWayne Smith, respectfully requests a stay of his execution which is scheduled for April 4, 2024, at 10:00 A.M. CST, at Oklahoma State Penitentiary. Petitioner asks this Court to stay his execution to maintain the status quo and preserve the Court’s eventual jurisdiction to review a petition for certiorari to the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1254(1). The issues to be raised will become moot if Mr. Smith is executed as scheduled. See Wainwright v. Booker, 473 U.S. 935, 936 (1985) (Powell, J., concurring); see also Murphy v. Collier, 139 S.Ct. 1475 (2019) (staying the execution pending the timely filing and disposition of a petition for a writ of certiorari). Under Supreme Court Rules 23.1 and 23.2 and under the authority of 28 U.S.C. § 2101(f), the stay may lawfully be granted. In the alternative, Mr. Smith requests a stay under the All Writs Act to preserve this Court’s jurisdiction to review the case following orderly appellate proceedings in the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals.” 28 U.S.C. § 1651. RELEVANT BACKGROUND * Counsel recognizes that the matter now before this Court and pending before the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals was presented close in time to Mr. Smith’s scheduled execution date and that this Court has a significant interest in deterring late-stage filings in capital cases. Dunn v. Ray, 139 S. Ct. 661 (2019); Bucklew v. Precythe, 139 S. Ct. 1112 (2019). RegardingMr. Smith’s Successive Application For Postconviction Relief filed April 2, 2024, it was only on the evening of Friday, March 29, 2024, that counsel was advised that a private investigator had obtained an affidavit from Ms. Sheena Johnson stating that her trial testimony, used in part to corroborate Mr. Smith’ confession, was untruthful. The successive application, and Mr. Smith’s Emergency Application For Stay of Execution was filed in the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals at the earliest reasonable time on April 2, 2024. 2 Mr. Smith is a death row prisoner incarcerated at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, Oklahoma. Mr. Smith was charged by Information in the District Court of Oklahoma County, Case No. CF-02-1329 with the February 22, 2002, First Degree Malice Aforethought Murders of Ms. Janet Moore and Mr. Sarath Pulluru. He was tried by jury and convicted of both homicides. The jury found two aggravating circumstances and the jury assessed sentences of death for each conviction, and the Honorable Twyla Mason Gray pronounced judgment and sentence accordingly. Mr. Smith made statements to Oklahoma City Police Detectives Teresa Sterling and Janet McNutt during an interrogation and ultimately confessed to both homicides which both occurred on February 22, 2002. As set out in the direct appeal opinion affirming Mr. Smith’s convictions and sentence of death, the Court found that: During the interview, Smith first denied committing the murders, then admitted only to being present, and finally admitted committing both murders. He explained he killed both victims in retaliation for wrongs done him or his family. He told detectives he went to Moore’s apartment looking for her son, that Moore panicked and started screaming, so he had t