A man who brutally killed two women almost three decades ago has been put to death on death row.
Samuel Lee Smithers, aged 72, received a lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke for the murders of Christy Cowan and Denise Roach in May 1996. The victims were found severely beaten and strangled in a pond.
Smithers became the 14th person to be executed in Florida this year, setting a new record for the state. The previous highest number of executions in Florida in a year was eight in 2014.
During the execution, Smithers, who was restrained, passed away shortly after receiving the lethal injection as he experienced convulsions and heavy breathing. He chose not to speak any last words or make a final statement before his death, despite a full witness gallery.
Florida intends to carry out two more executions in the coming weeks. It took almost thirty years to execute Smithers after he was convicted of the two murders in 1999.
The court heard that Smithers met the two victims separately in May 1996 at a motel in Tampa, Florida, for paid sexual encounters. At the time, he was working in landscape maintenance on a property in rural Plant City, Florida, which had several ponds.
On May 28, 1996, the property owner, who knew Smithers from church where he served as a Baptist deacon, discovered him cleaning an axe in the garage. Smithers claimed the axe was for trimming tree limbs. The property owner noticed blood in the garage, which Smithers attributed to a small animal being killed by someone else.
Law enforcement was alerted by the property owner, and a sheriff’s deputy found drag marks leading to one of the ponds on the property. The bodies of the victims were discovered in the pond, having been beaten, strangled, and left to perish.
Last week, the Florida Supreme Court rejected an appeal from Smithers. His defense argued that his age should exempt him from execution, citing the prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment in the US Constitution. However, the court ruled that age does not automatically protect individuals from the death penalty.
The US Supreme Court also dismissed a final appeal from Smithers on Tuesday without providing any comment. Up to that point, 35 men had been executed in the US through court orders this year.
At Reach and across our entities we and our partners use information collected through cookies and other identifiers from your device to improve experience on our site, analyse how it is used and to show personalised advertising. You can opt out of the sale or sharing of your data, at any time clicking the “Do Not Sell or Share my Data” button at the bottom of the webpage. Please note that your preferences are browser specific. Use of our website and any of our services represents your acceptance of the use of <a data-testid="cipa-cookie-notice-link" href="https://www.mirror.co.uk/cookie-policy/" rel="n
