Samuel L. Smithers v. State of Florida

Summary

The court affirmed the summary denial of Smithers's successive postconviction motion challenging his execution at age seventy-two as cruel and unusual punishment. It held that the claim was untimely and procedurally barred because Smithers could have raised it once he reached the age underlying his proposed exemption, and that Florida's conformity clause foreclosed expanding the cruel-and-unusual-punishment protection to persons age sixty-five or older. The court therefore did not reach Smithers's arguments concerning evolving standards of decency, deterrence, or retribution.