A person convicted of killing two girls whose our bodies have been present in a rural pond in 1996 was put to loss of life Tuesday night in a document 14th execution this 12 months in Florida.
Samuel Lee Smithers, 72, was pronounced lifeless at 6:15 p.m. following a deadly injection at Florida State Jail close to Starke, the workplace of Gov. Ron DeSantis stated. Smithers was convicted of two counts of first-degree homicide and sentenced to loss of life in 1999.
When requested if he had a ultimate assertion, Smithers stated, “No sir,” in line with DeSantis spokesman Alex Lanfranconi. He stated there have been no issues.
Smithers’ loss of life prolonged Florida’s document for complete executions in a single 12 months, with the state planning to hold out two extra executions later this month and subsequent.
Because the U.S. Supreme Court docket restored the loss of life penalty in 1976, the best earlier annual complete of Florida executions was eight in 2014. Florida has executed extra individuals than some other state this 12 months, adopted by Texas with 5.
Smithers was convicted of two counts of first-degree homicide and sentenced to loss of life in 1999.
His was certainly one of two executions scheduled for Tuesday night within the U.S. Lance Shockley, 48, was set to be executed in Missouri for fatally capturing a state trooper greater than 20 years in the past.
Court docket information point out Smithers met Christy Cowan and Denise Roach on totally different dates in Could 1996 at a Tampa motel to pay them for intercourse. On the time, he was doing panorama upkeep on a 27-acre property that included three ponds in rural Plant Metropolis, Florida.
On Could 28, 1996, the property proprietor — who had met Smithers in church the place he was a Baptist deacon — stopped by to search out Smithers cleansing an ax within the carport, which he claimed to be utilizing to trim tree limbs. The property proprietor observed a pool of blood within the carport, and Smithers advised her that somebody will need to have come by and killed a small animal, in line with courtroom information.
The girl contacted legislation enforcement, and a sheriff’s deputy met her later that day on the property. The blood had been cleaned up, however the deputy observed drag marks resulting in one of many ponds, in line with courtroom information. That is the place authorities discovered the our bodies of Cowan and Roach. Each girls had been severely crushed, strangled and left within the pond to die.
The Florida Supreme Court docket denied an attraction from Smithers final week. His attorneys had argued that his age ought to make him ineligible for execution beneath the U.S. Structure’s prohibition in opposition to merciless and weird punishment. Though Smithers can be one of many oldest individuals ever executed in Florida, the justices dominated that the aged are usually not categorically exempt from the loss of life penalty.
On Tuesday afternoon, the U.S. Supreme Court docket rejected a late attraction with out remark.
Previous to Tuesday, a complete of 35 males had died by court-ordered execution up to now this 12 months within the U.S.
Norman Mearle Grim Jr., 65, is scheduled for Florida’s fifteenth execution on Oct. 28. He was convicted of raping and killing his neighbor, whose physique was discovered by a fisherman close to the Pensacola Bay Bridge in 1998.
Bryan Fredrick Jennings, 66, is ready for Florida’s sixteenth execution on Nov. 13. He was convicted of raping and killing a 6-year-old lady after abducting her from her central Florida residence in 1979.
Florida executions are carried out utilizing a three-drug injection: a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the guts, in line with the state Division of Corrections.
