On Tuesday, October 14, the United States recorded a double execution that marked a new critical point in the use of capital punishment. In a span of just one hour, the states of Florida and Missouri carried out the executions of Samuel Lee Smithers and Lance Shockley, respectively.
Both cases add to a wave of executions that makes October 2025 the busiest month in nearly 15 years, with two prisoners executed in less than an hour.
The case of Florida: an all-time record in executions
In Florida, Samuel Lee Smithers, 72, was executed by lethal injection at Raiford State Prison.
His conviction was for the 1996 murders of two women, identified as Denise Roach (24) and Christy Cowan (31), both Tampa-area residents.
Smithers, who worked as a gardener and served as a deacon at a local church, partially confessed to beating and choking the victims after arguments over money.
The case shocked the community because of the brutality of the crimes and because Smithers was described as a religious, married man with no history of violence.
In his defense, the convicted man went so far as to claim that a third party had been responsible for one of the murders, but the jurors rejected that version.
Smithers becomes the 14th inmate executed in Florida this year, the highest number in the state’s recent history.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, Florida had not exceeded eight executions per year.
Human rights organizations have described the situation as “alarming”, warning about the use of lethal injection on elderly people and the possible effects of physical suffering during the process.
Missouri executes state trooper’s killer
An hour later, in Missouri, Lance Shockley, 48, was also executed by lethal injection for the 2005 murder of State Sgt. Carl “Dewayne” Graham Jr.
Graham, the father of a four-year-old boy, was ambushed as he arrived at his home in rural Van Buren.
Prosecutors contended that Shockley killed him to avoid being implicated in an investigation into a fatal accident he had fled.
However, the convicted man always maintained his innocence, claiming that there was no DNA, no witnesses, and no physical evidence directly linking him to the crime.
Even so, the state and federal courts upheld the sentence, and Governor Mike Kehoe assured that the execution represented “a sign of the state’s commitment to justice and respect for order”.
This is how the U.S. had two prisoners executed in less than an hour.
An upswing in the use of capital punishment
Buzzy
With these two executions, the United States totals 37 so far in 2025, the highest number since 2014.
Seven executions are scheduled for October alone, four of them in a single week, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
The increase coincides with a tightening in criminal justice policies under the administration of President Donald Trump, who has publicly expressed support for the death penalty “for heinous crimes.”
Mississippi and Arizona have new executions scheduled this week, while at least five more will take place before the end of the year.
If all are met, 2025 would close with 44 executions, the highest annual total in more than a decade.
Several organizations, such as the ACLU and Amnesty International, have reiterated their calls for a review of the application of capital punishment, especially in cases involving possible miscarriages of justice or critical medical conditions of the condemned.
In a country where justice and morality intersect with politics and public opinion, October 2025 is marked as the month when the death penalty debate once again divided America.
Filed under: Two prisoners executed in the U.S.
