Samuel L. Smithers’ final appeal to halt his execution has reached the nation’s highest court, one day after the Florida Supreme Court affirmed his death sentence. Smithers’ attorneys filed a petition and a request for a stay of execution with the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) on Wednesday, arguing that executing the 72-year-old would constitute “cruel and unusual punishment.”
The last-minute legal maneuver comes as Florida prepares to carry out its 14th execution this year, a modern-era record. Smithers is scheduled to be executed next Tuesday for the brutal 1996 murders of Cristy Cowan and Denise Roach.
Attorneys for Smithers called the issue “of national and constitutional significance” in their petition to SCOTUS. They argue that executing a senior citizen “runs contrary to our maturing society’s values and principles” and would serve no legitimate purpose of capital punishment.
The petition specifically highlighted the argument that his execution serves neither deterrence nor retribution, the two primary penological purposes of the death penalty.
- Elderly Exemption Analogy: The defense argues that the prohibition on executing the elderly should be treated analogously to the legal bar on executing a person who is insane or mentally incompetent at the time of execution. “The prohibition only focuses on the person’s state at the time of the execution,” the petition stated. “This should be applied analogously to those that have reached the age for consideration as being elderly.”
- Florida Record: Smithers, who has been on Death Row since 1999, would be the first inmate over age 70 executed in Florida since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.
Florida’s Ruling and the Conformity Clause
The SCOTUS petition follows Tuesday’s ruling by the Florida Supreme Court, which affirmed the summary denial of Smithers’ successive motion to vacate his death sentences.
The state court rejected the argument that his advanced age categorically exempted him from execution, ruling on two main points:
- Untimely Claim: The court found the claim was procedurally barred, arguing that Smithers could have raised the issue when he turned 65, rather than waiting until a death warrant was signed.
- Conformity Clause: The court ruled that the claim was foreclosed by Florida’s conformity clause, which requires the state’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment to align with the U.S. Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Eighth Amendment. The opinion stated, “No opinion of the United States Supreme Court or this (Florida Supreme) Court has held that the elderly are categorically exempt from execution.”
The Florida Supreme Court also explicitly rejected the defense’s comparison to executing the incompetent, stating it would not “break new ground” by expanding Eighth Amendment protections beyond those already recognized by federal precedent.
Execution Timeline and Calls for Clemency
Governor Ron DeSantis signed the death warrant for Smithers on September 12, 2025. If the execution proceeds next Tuesday, it will mark the 14th execution in Florida this year, surpassing the previous modern-era record of eight (set in 1984 and 2014). DeSantis has already signed another warrant for Norman Grim, scheduled for later this month.
The Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops added its voice to the clemency efforts, releasing a letter sent to the Governor asking him to halt the execution.
The letter argued that while Smithers’ crimes were “heinous,” the death penalty is unnecessary and that “life-long incarceration without the possibility of parole” is a “severe yet more humane punishment.”
Smithers was convicted for the 1996 murders of Cowan and Roach at a secluded property in Plant City where he worked as a caretaker. Court records indicate Smithers picked up the two women at different times at an east Tampa motel to have “sex for money” before bludgeoning them to death and dumping their bodies in a pond.
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