Tonight, We the People of the State of Florida executed 72-year-old Samuel “Sammy” Lee Smithers for the 1996 murders of Denise Roach and Christie Cowan. Sammy was the oldest person executed in the modern era of Florida’s death penalty.
We killed a man with a profound history of head trauma and brain damage who was substantially impaired at the time of the crime. We killed an elderly man whose continued cognitive decline over his 30 years on death row was medically documented. We killed a man who posed absolutely no threat to anyone.
What makes this execution unbearable is the lie that sustains it. Florida’s leaders insist that killing people and calling it justice somehow brings peace — that this relentless killing spree honors victims and heals families. It does not. It never has. It was a lie when it was told thirty years ago in this very case, and it remains a lie tonight.
Christie Cowan’s father visited his daughter’s grave and then stood before the judge, pleading for the life of the man who had killed his daughter. He said that he did not want his child’s name used to justify another killing. His words, born of unimaginable pain, offered the moral clarity that the prosecutor, the judge, and our elected officials have not yet found: that violence in response to violence is not the answer, and it never will be:
My opposition to Mr. Smithers’ execution comes partly from a need to honor the memory of my beloved daughter, Christie, and not to subject her with more violence done in her name. Like it or not, Mr. Smithers is one of us, and like us he is also a child of God.
His eloquent cries fell on deaf ears both then and now. He remains opposed to tonight’s execution. Mr. Cowan said that Sammy’s execution would be “the worst and most brutal possible kind of closure” — one that would make him sick and ashamed every time he thought of his daughter.
Mr. Cowan asked only that Sammy be allowed to make his remaining days count for something greater than the harm he caused. “As long as he is alive, there is hope,” he said.
We the People of the State of Florida killed his hope tonight. We should be ashamed.