Overview

• Lethal injection is scheduled for 6 p.m. ET at Florida State Prison under a death warrant signed by Governor Ron DeSantis.
• The Florida Supreme Court denied an appeal asserting age-based Eighth Amendment protections, with a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court still pending.
• If carried out, the execution would be Florida's 14th of 2025, extending a single-year state record and keeping the state at the top of national totals.
• Smithers was convicted in 1999 for the 1996 killings of Christy Cowan and Denise Roach, whom court records say were beaten, strangled and left in a pond near Plant City.
• Florida employs a three‑drug lethal injection protocol, and the case unfolds during a week with four U.S. executions scheduled and 35 carried out nationwide so far this year.