Florida Sets Record with 14th Execution of 2025 as 72-Year-Old Killer Faces Death

This will be Florida’s 14th execution, which is the highest number ever recorded in a single year in the state. Before this, the record was eight executions in 2014.

14th of October 2025

Florida: A 72 year old man is set to be executed Tuesday evening for the killing of two women almost 30 years ago. Samuel Lee Smithers will receive a deadly injection at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke. Governor Ron DeSantis signed his death warrant earlier this year.

This will be Florida’s 14th execution, which is the highest number ever recorded in a single year in the state. Before this, the record was eight executions in 2014. Moreover, Florida has conducted the most executions of any U.S. state this year, which is followed by Texas’ five.

Smithers was found guilty of the murders of Christy Cowan and Denise Roach in 1999. According to the initial police investigation, he met the two women separately in May 1996 at a hotel in Tampa which at the time was a meeting place for his sexual services. During that time, he worked as a landscape maintenance employee at a large Plant City property which had several ponds.

On May 28, 1996, the property owner came over and found Smithers cleaning an ax in the carport. When she noticed blood nearby, Smithers told her a small animal had been killed there. The woman’s instincts told her something was off and she immediately called the police.

A police deputy arrived later and went to the property. He noticed drag marks which led up to one of the ponds. At the scene, officers found the bodies of both women in the water. It was reported that the victims had been beaten, strangled, and left to die in the pond. Smithers, who used to be a Baptist deacon, was arrested later and sentenced to death.

Last week, the Florida Supreme Court turned down his last state appeal. His lawyers said that his age should protect him from execution under the U.S. Constitution, but the court disagreed, ruling that the elderly are not automatically exempted from the death penalty. A final Supreme Court appeal is still pending.

Another execution is scheduled to take place in Missouri on Tuesday evening. Lance Shockley, at age 48, will be sentenced to death for killing a state trooper almost 20 years ago. Florida’s next execution is set for October 28 and November 13. Norman Mearle Grim Jr, 65, and Bryan Fredrick Jennings, 66, are will be put on death sentence for separate murder and rape charges.