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3d ago

DeSantis Signs Warrant Setting Oct. 14 Execution for Samuel Smithers

The warrant places the 1999 double‑murder case into a final appeals window at Florida State Prison.

FILE - Clouds hover over the entrance of the Florida State Prison in Starke, Fla., Aug. 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Curt Anderson, file)
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Overview

  • Samuel Lee Smithers, 72, is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Oct. 14 at Florida State Prison, according to documents posted on the Florida Supreme Court website.
  • Court records say Smithers met Denise Roach and Christy (Cristy) Cowan at a Tampa motel for paid sex in May 1996 and took them to a rural Plant City property where they were beaten, strangled, and left in a pond.
  • Property owner Marion Whitehurst told authorities she found Smithers cleaning an axe and noticed a pool of blood, and deputies followed drag marks to a pond where both victims’ bodies were recovered.
  • Smithers confessed during the investigation, was convicted and sentenced to death in 1999, and his convictions and sentences have been upheld by the Florida Supreme Court.
  • The scheduled execution would be the 14th set in Florida this year as the state extends a modern‑era record, with executions also scheduled for David Pittman on Wednesday and Victor Tony Jones on Sept. 30.