DeSantis orders execution of Plant City man known as ‘Deacon of Death’
Story by Dan Sullivan • 1h
TAMPA — Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a death warrant Friday for Samuel Lee Smithers, a former Plant City church deacon convicted of the 1996 murders of two women.
DeSantis ordered Smithers, 72, to be executed Oct. 14.
His is the 14th death warrant DeSantis has signed in 2025. The governor, who previously went for long periods without conducting any executions, has ordered more executions in a single year than any of his predecessors.
A jury in 1998 found Smithers guilty in the killings of Christy Elizabeth Cowan and Denise Elaine Roach. The women, who had worked as prostitutes in Tampa, were found dead in a pond behind an east Hillsborough County home.
His case later became the subject of a true crime book by author Fred Rosen, who dubbed him the “Deacon of Death.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/desantis-orders-execution-of-plant-city-man-known-as-deacon-of-death/ar-AA1MzvSp?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=HCTS&cvid=68c7f3f5257949c6b016a615573982ad&ei=14
