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Starke, FL - Samuel Lee Smithers, 72, was executed by lethal injection Tuesday evening at Florida State Prison near Starke for the 1996 murders of two women whose bodies were discovered in a rural pond.
Smithers had been convicted of two counts of first-degree murder in 1999 and sentenced to death.
According to court records, Smithers allegedly met Christy Cowan and Denise Roach on separate occasions in May 1996 at a Tampa motel, paying them for sex.
At the time, he was performing landscape maintenance on a 27-acre property in Plant City, Florida, which included several ponds.
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On May 28, 1996, the property owner, who had known Smithers from church, saw him cleaning an ax in the carport and noticed a pool of blood.
Smithers reportedly told her the blood was from a small animal.
Law enforcement was called, and deputies observed drag marks leading to a pond, where the bodies of Cowan and Roach were found.
Both women had been severely beaten, strangled, and left in the pond.
Smithers’ conviction and death sentence were upheld by the Florida Supreme Court, which rejected appeals citing his age as a factor ineligible for execution under the Eighth Amendment.
An appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was still pending at the time of his execution.
Smithers was pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m.
His execution was the 14th carried out in Florida in 2025, surpassing previous state records for annual executions.
Florida continues to lead the nation in executions this year, with additional executions scheduled for later in 2025.