Starke, FL – Samuel Lee Smithers, 72, was executed by lethal injection Tuesday evening at Florida State Prison near Starke for the 1996 murders of two women whose bodies were discovered in a rural pond.
Smithers had been convicted of two counts of first-degree murder in 1999 and sentenced to death.
According to court records, Smithers allegedly met Christy Cowan and Denise Roach on separate occasions in May 1996 at a Tampa motel, paying them for sex…