Florida Execution Marks State’s 14th This Year

A Florida man, infamously dubbed the “Butler of Death,” was executed on Tuesday for the 1996 killings of two women, whose bodies were found in a pond. This event brings the total number of executions in Florida to 14 for the year, the highest in the state’s history.

Samuel Lee Smithers, aged 72, was declared dead via lethal injection at the Florida State Prison in Bradford County around 6:15 p.m. Officials announced the details shortly thereafter.

At 6 p.m., the execution chamber’s curtains opened, revealing Smithers already restrained on the table with an IV in place.

He opted not to make a final statement, only responding to inquiries with a brief, “No, sir.”

For his last meal, he requested peanut butter, a few packages of oatmeal, water, and two sports drinks.

Smithers, a deacon at a Baptist church, first met his victims—Christy Cowan and Denise Roach—in May 1996, near a Tampa motel known for its connections to prostitution.

Cowan and Roach, both working as prostitutes, were lured to a large property where Smithers was doing landscaping work, as outlined in court documents.

After engaging in sexual activity with both women, Smithers took them to his carport, killed them, and disposed of their bodies in one of the ponds on the property.

The owner of the property, who recognized Smithers from church, found him cleaning an ax next to a pool of blood days after he was due to complete his landscaping tasks.

Smithers claimed he had returned to cut a tree branch and attributed the blood to an animal being killed nearby.

However, the property owner contacted the police, leading to the discovery of Cowan’s body in the pond.

Roach’s body was found later, also near the water, but it was significantly decomposed and seemingly there for at least a week.

The two women had suffered similar horrific injuries, featuring indications of strangulation, lacerations, and head wounds.

Roach, in particular, had 16 stab wounds to her skull along with a fracture.

It is believed that Smithers employed both an ax and a hoe during the brutal acts.

During the trial, evidence surfaced that he had frequented a Tampa motel multiple times and had “dates” with another prostitute.

Smithers’ execution increases Florida’s total for this year, setting a record. Notably, two more death row inmates, Norman Merle Grimm Jr. and Brian Frederick Jennings, are scheduled for execution on October 28 and November 13, respectively.

Grimm Jr. was convicted of raping and murdering his neighbor in 1998, while Jennings kidnapped and killed a 6-year-old girl in 1979.

On the same day as Smithers’ execution, Missouri executed Lance Shockley, who was convicted of killing a Missouri State Highway Patrol officer.