A Florida man convicted of murdering two women he had hired for sex was executed by lethal injection on Tuesday, marking one of four executions scheduled across the United States this week.
Samuel Smithers, aged 72, was sentenced to death in 1999 for the 1996 killings of Christy Cowan and Denise Roach in Tampa. Both victims were beaten and strangled before their bodies were discovered in a pond.
Smithers was executed at 6:15 p.m. (2215 GMT) at a Florida state prison — the 14th execution carried out in the state this year.
In a separate case, Missouri also executed 48-year-old Lance Shockley by lethal injection on Tuesday for the 2005 murder of police sergeant Carl Graham. The officer was ambushed and shot dead at his home while investigating a fatal car accident involving Shockley.
Despite claiming innocence, Shockley’s appeals were repeatedly rejected, including by the U.S. Supreme Court. Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe denied his final plea for clemency on Monday.
Two more executions are set to take place this week. In Mississippi, 59-year-old Charles Crawford is scheduled for execution on Wednesday for the 1994 rape and murder of university student Kristy Ray. On Friday, Arizona plans to execute 55-year-old Richard Djerf for the 1993 murders of four members of a family in Phoenix.
In a letter written last month, Djerf apologised for his crimes and said he was ready to die. “If I can’t find a reason to spare my life, what reason would anyone else have?” he wrote.
This year, the United States has carried out 37 executions — the highest figure since 2013, when 39 were recorded. Florida leads with 14 executions, followed by Texas with five, and South Carolina and Alabama with four each.
Of these, 31 were by lethal injection, two by firing squad, and four by nitrogen hypoxia — a controversial method that induces death through suffocation using nitrogen gas. United Nations experts have condemned it as cruel and inhumane.
The death penalty has been abolished in 23 U.S. states, while three others — California, Oregon, and Pennsylvania — maintain moratoriums.
President Donald Trump remains a strong advocate of capital punishment and has called for its expansion to cover what he described as “the vilest crimes.”