Overview
- Smithers, 72, was executed by lethal injection at Florida State Prison and pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m., becoming the oldest person executed in Florida’s modern era.
- He was convicted in 1999 of murdering Christy Cowan and Denise Roach, whose bodies were found in a Plant City pond after the property owner saw him cleaning an axe and deputies followed drag marks to the water.
- Court records cite DNA and surveillance footage, inconsistent statements, and a subsequent confession linking him to the killings.
- The Florida Supreme Court denied his Eighth Amendment age-based challenge last week, and the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a final appeal hours before the execution.
- The execution set a single-year state record at 14, with two more set: Norman Mearle Grim Jr. on Oct. 28 and Bryan Fredrick Jennings on Nov. 13, as rights groups and at least one victim’s family member voiced opposition while the governor defended the action.