Florida’s become ground zero for how justice should work.
Governor Ron DeSantis refuses to play political games when it comes to protecting innocent lives.
And Ron DeSantis just broke one death penalty record that will have the Left seething.
Florida executes brutal double murderer in record 14th execution of 2025
The state of Florida put Samuel Lee Smithers to death Tuesday evening, making him the 14th person executed in the state this year – obliterating Florida’s previous single-year record of eight executions set back in 2014.¹
The 72-year-old killer refused to address the witnesses or families of his victims before prison officials administered the fatal drugs at the state facility near Starke.²
Smithers murdered two women back in 1996 after soliciting them for prostitution, then disposed of their remains in a pond on rural property where he worked.³
Governor Ron DeSantis isn’t apologizing for enforcing justice, and Florida taxpayers aren’t footing the bill to keep monsters like Smithers locked up for decades while liberal activists wage endless legal battles.
The details of what Smithers did would make anyone’s blood run cold.
The killer arranged separate encounters with Christy Cowan and Denise Roach during May 1996, attacking both women after paying them for sex.⁴
Get this – the woman who owned the property where Smithers did landscaping work knew him from their Baptist congregation, where he presented himself as a deacon.⁵
She showed up one day to find him washing off a cutting tool, with blood pooled nearby.⁶
Smithers tried claiming an animal must have been killed there by someone else.⁷
That story collapsed when sheriff’s deputies noticed marks on the ground leading toward the water, where both victims were recovered.⁸
DeSantis leading the nation in delivering justice for murder victims
No other state comes close to Florida’s pace of carrying out death sentences this year.
Texas typically leads the country in executions, but the Lone Star State has only put five inmates to death in 2025 – less than half of Florida’s total.⁹
The state has two more executions on the calendar before 2026 arrives, which would push the year’s final count to 16.¹⁰
Norman Mearle Grim Jr., 65, is scheduled to die on October 28 for sexually assaulting and killing a woman who lived near him, whose remains were discovered by someone fishing near a Pensacola bridge in 1998.¹¹
Bryan Fredrick Jennings, 66, faces execution on November 13 for sexually assaulting and killing a six-year-old child after taking her from her home in central Florida back in 1979.¹²
Smithers’ legal team exhausted every possible avenue trying to prevent the execution.
His lawyers claimed the inmate’s advanced age meant putting him to death would violate constitutional protections against excessive punishment.¹³
The Florida Supreme Court rejected that argument, determining that age alone doesn’t shield convicted murderers from facing the ultimate penalty.¹⁴
The nation’s highest court turned away a final emergency petition Tuesday without explanation.¹⁵
Florida shows America how the death penalty should work
Here’s what sets DeSantis apart from weak-kneed politicians who let murderers sit on death row for decades.
The previous Florida record for executions in one year stood at eight, set more than a decade ago in 2014.¹⁶
DeSantis didn’t just break that record – he shattered it, and the year isn’t even over yet.
The Governor understands something Democrats refuse to acknowledge – families of murder victims deserve closure, not endless appeals that drag on for decades while taxpayers fund luxurious accommodations for convicted killers.
Smithers survived nearly three decades after taking two innocent lives.
That’s 29 years of meals, healthcare, and attorneys – all funded by hardworking Floridians.
Christy Cowan and Denise Roach got no such consideration from their killer.
Prison staff used Florida’s standard protocol Tuesday – a series of three injections designed to sedate, paralyze, and stop the heart – with no reported problems during the procedure.¹⁷
DeSantis is showing red states across America how to actually deliver justice instead of letting the court system become a perpetual appeals machine that protects murderers while victims’ families wait decades for closure.
The message from Tallahassee couldn’t be clearer – if you commit heinous murders in Florida, Ron DeSantis will make sure justice is served.
¹ CBS News/Associated Press, "Florida executes man convicted of beating, strangling 2 women whose bodies were found in a pond," October 14, 2025.
² – ¹⁷ Ibid.
