US EditionFlorida man convicted of killing 2 women whose bodies were found in a pond is set to be executed
Smithers was sentenced to death for killing two women after paying for sex; Florida will carry out its 14th execution of 2025, the state's highest yearly total, officials said.
- On Tuesday, Samuel Lee Smithers is scheduled to receive a lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke under a death warrant signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
- Authorities later found the victims' bodies in a pond where Jennings’ property owner discovered blood in 1998, court records show.
- Investigators recorded blood and drag marks leading to a pond after a property owner found Smithers cleaning an axe in 1998, leading to his 1999 conviction.
- With the Florida Supreme Court denial on Tuesday, a final appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court remains pending; his attorneys argued age should make him ineligible, but courts rejected this.
- Florida has executed more people than any other state this year, extending its record, while 35 men have died nationwide and at least eight people remain scheduled in 2025.
84 Articles
84 Articles
A Florida man convicted of murdering two women he had hired for sexual intercourse was executed by lethal injection, in one of the two executions carried out with this method this Tuesday in the United States. Samuel Smithers, 72 years old, was sentenced to death in 1999 for the murders of Christy Cowan and Denise Roach in 1996 in Tampa. Both had been beaten and strangled, and their bodies were found in a pond. Smithers was executed in a Florida…
Florida Executes Man Convicted of Killing 2 Women Whose Bodies Were Found in Pond
STARKE, Fla.—A man convicted of the 1996 killings of two women whose bodies were left in a rural pond was put to death Tuesday evening. Samuel Lee Smithers, 72, was pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m. following a lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke. Smithers was convicted in 1999 of two counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. The curtain to the death chamber went up promptly at the scheduled 6:00 p.m. execution time, with…
Miami, U.S.A., Oct. 14, (EFE).- With 37 executions in 2025, the U.S. has surpassed the 2014 figures on Tuesday, when 35 were recorded, while Florida leads the rebound with 14 deaths, its largest number in decades. Florida today applied the death penalty to Samuel Smithers, convicted of the 1996 murder of two women he paid for sex, while Missouri executed Lance Shockley, 48, for the murder of a sergeant in 2005. Smithers, 72, was executed in Flor…
Miami, United States. A Florida man convicted of murdering two women he had hired to have sex with was executed by lethal injection, in one of two executions carried out with this method this Tuesday in the United States.Samuel Smithers, 72, was sentenced to death in 1999 for the murders of Christy Cowan and Denise Roach in 1996 in Tampa. Both had been beaten and strangled, and their bodies were found in a pond.Smithers was executed in a Florida…
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