The final chapter in one of Oklahoma’s most brutal murder cases closed Tuesday night as Lois Nadean Smith, the 61-year-old woman who tortured and shot a young mother nine times more than two decades ago, was pronounced dead by lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.
Smith died at 9:13 p. m. local time, just two minutes after the three-𝒹𝓇𝓊𝑔 cocktail began flowing into her veins.
Her last words, delivered in a soft, emotional voice, were directed at the family of her victim, Cindy Bailey. “I want to say I’m sorry for the pain and loss I’ve caused you. I ask that you forgive me.
You must forgive to be forgiven. To live is Christ. To die is gain.
Thank you, Jesus,” Smith said, before continuing to mouth the words “Thank you, Jesus” as the drugs took effect.
The execution marked the end of a 19-year journey through the legal system for a woman known since high school by the chilling nickname “Mean Nadean.” Smith was convicted in 1983 for the Independence Day 1982 murder of 21-year-old Cindy Bailey, a mother of a three-year-old daughter, Brandy Fields.
On that July morning, Smith, her son Greg Smith, and another woman, Teresa Baker, picked up Bailey from a motel in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Bailey believed she was going to clear the air with Greg, her ex-boyfriend. Instead, Smith confronted Bailey about rumors—unsubstantiated claims that Bailey had threatened to have Greg killed and had reported Smith to police for 𝒹𝓇𝓊𝑔 dealing.
Bailey denied everything, but Smith did not believe her. While still in the car, Smith began choking Bailey. Then she grabbed a knife from the victim’s own purse and stabbed Bailey in the throat.
The group drove to the home of Smith’s ex-husband, Jim Smith, in Gans, Oklahoma. Once inside, Smith forced the bleeding Bailey into a recliner.
Smith produced a pistol and taunted her victim, telling Bailey she was going to die. Bailey begged for her life, pleading that her young daughter needed her. Smith raised the gun and fired.
The first shots struck Bailey in the chest, causing her to fall to the floor. When the pistol ran out of ammunition, Greg Smith—the victim’s ex-boyfriend—reloaded it and handed it back to his mother.
During that pause, Smith jumped on Bailey’s neck, crushing her throat with her full weight. Prosecutors said she laughed while doing so. After receiving the reloaded weapon, Smith fired four more shots into Bailey’s chest.
Then she walked around to stand over Bailey’s head and fired two final shots into the back of her skull execution style.
In total, Bailey suffered nine gunshot wounds, a stab wound to the throat, and severe trauma from choking and being stomped on. The murder was captured through forensic evidence and testimony from witnesses who heard the gunshots and called police. Smith and her son were arrested within hours.
During the trial, Smith admitted to stabbing and shooting Bailey but claimed she did not intend to 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁 her. The jury rejected that defense. They found the murder to be “especially heinous, atrocious, and cruel” and recommended the death penalty.
Greg Smith, who reloaded the gun, received a life sentence.
Over the next 19 years, Smith filed multiple appeals, arguing that her trial was tainted by a conflict of interest because her lawyer also represented her son, and that her history of alcohol and 𝒹𝓇𝓊𝑔 𝓪𝓫𝓾𝓼𝓮 should have mitigated her responsibility. Every appeal was rejected by state and federal courts, including the U. S.
Supreme Court, which denied her final request for a stay in October 2001.
On November 7, 2001, the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board denied clemency. Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson said the jury had justifiably found the murder to be “especially heinous, atrocious, and cruel,” adding that the sentence was appropriate after years of appeals.
As the execution date approached, Bailey’s daughter, Brandy Fields, then 24 years old, prepared to witness the carrying out of justice. Fields was only three when her mother was killed. She grew up without a mother, raised by relatives, and carried the weight of a brutal murder through her entire childhood.
On the night of the execution, a small group of protesters held a candlelight vigil outside the Mabel Bassett Correctional Center in Oklahoma City, where Smith had been housed before being transferred to McAlester. Eight women were arrested for crossing a police line, charged with misdemeanor trespassing.
Inside the execution chamber, Smith was strapped to a gurney, her gray hair and glasses making her appear frail—a stark contrast to the violent woman who had tortured Bailey. The warden asked if she had any final words. Smith signed “I love you” to her attorneys, spiritual adviser, and investigator, then turned toward Fields and the rest of Bailey’s family.
She spoke clearly, offering an apology and quoting scripture. After thanking her attorneys, she lay her head back and continued mouthing “Thank you, Jesus.” At 9:11 p.
m. , the drugs began flowing. She lost consciousness within seconds, and her breathing stopped almost immediately.
At 9:13 p. m. , she was pronounced dead.
After the execution, Brandy Fields spoke to reporters. “You do something of this magnitude torturing somebody, you’re going to have to pay the price for it,” she said. “She chose her path in life.”
When asked about Smith’s apology, Fields said, “If she really meant it, you have to forgive, even though it’s very hard and it doesn’t help me at all. It does a little bit, but it doesn’t bring back my mom.”
Fields noted that justice was not fully complete because Greg Smith, who reloaded the gun, remains in prison serving a life sentence and has a parole hearing scheduled for May 2002. “It’s not completely over because I still have to go and do that until he dies,” she said.
Oklahoma’s execution of Smith made history. She was the third woman executed by the state in 2001, a national record since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Oklahoma executed 18 people that year, the highest number in the nation, surpassing even Texas.
Smith was the 17th execution in 2001 for the state.
No woman has been executed in Oklahoma since Smith’s death. Her case raised enduring questions about the fairness of capital punishment, particularly the disparity between her sentence and that of her son, who enabled the murder. Greg Smith, now in his 50s, was arrested again in 2014 in Bozeman, Montana, on kidnapping charges in an incident prosecutors noted was remarkably similar to his mother’s crime.
The nickname “Mean Nadean” followed Smith from her high school years into the history books. It was a reputation built on a pattern of violence and aggression that culminated in the torture and execution of a young mother. In her final moments, Smith appeared peaceful, mouthing thanks to Jesus as the drugs ended her life.
But for Brandy Fields, the peace is elusive. She watched Smith die “more gracefully than my mother ever did,” she said. Bailey’s death took much longer—through stabbing, choking, stomping, and nine gunshots, all while Smith laughed.
Fields will continue to face the legacy of that day, including the fight to keep Greg Smith behind bars.
The execution of Lois Nadean Smith represents the first and only time a woman has been executed in Oklahoma since 2001. It was the eighth execution of a woman in the United States since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976. For the state, it was a stark moment of closure in a case that had haunted Sequoyah County for nearly two decades.
As the witness curtain closed on the execution chamber, the family of Cindy Bailey finally saw the sentence carried out. Smith’s last words of apology and religious devotion did little to erase the pain. “I’m glad it’s over.
It’s been a long time,” Fields said.
The case of Lois Nadean Smith will be remembered as a chilling example of a mother’s twisted loyalty and a state’s ultimate sanction. Smith’s life ended in two minutes. Bailey’s life ended in agony.
And the aftermath continues to ripple through the lives of everyone connected to that Independence Day in 1982.
For now, the Oklahoma death row for women is empty. The state has not executed a woman since. But the debate over capital punishment, especially in cases involving women and mental health issues, remains as heated as ever.
For Brandy Fields, the debate is irrelevant. What matters is that the woman who killed her mother is dead.
Fields now plans to attend Greg Smith’s parole hearing and fight to ensure he never walks free. “I’m glad this part of it is over,” she said. “Because I don’t ever have to hear that she’s got clemency or is going to stay the rest of her remaining life in prison.
She’s got what the court handed down to her.”
The execution of Lois Nadean Smith closes a chapter of Oklahoma’s death penalty history. The state executed 18 people in 2001, more than any other state. Among them were three women, a record that still stands.
Smith’s case, with its brutality and the victim’s daughter’s unwavering pursuit of justice, will continue to be studied by advocates on both sides of the capital punishment debate.
For now, the gurney is empty, the drugs have been flushed, and the witnesses have gone home. Cindy Bailey’s daughter is 24 and has a life ahead of her, one that will always be shaped by the loss of her mother. Lois Nadean Smith is buried, her own children left behind.
Greg Smith remains in prison.
The cycle of violence that began in 1982 may not be fully broken, but one chapter has ended. On December 4, 2001, at 9:13 p. m.
, the state of Oklahoma carried out its final execution of a woman in the 20th century. Lois Nadean Smith, once nicknamed “Mean Nadean,” died with the words “Thank you, Jesus” on her lips. The family of Cindy Bailey hopes that is not the last word.