A man convicted of the 1996 killings of two women whose bodies were left in a rural pond was put to death Tuesday evening in a record 14th execution in Florida this year, NBC News reports.

Samuel Lee Smithers, 72, was pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m. following a lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke.

Smithers was convicted in 1999 of two counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to death.

Department of Corrections spokesman Ted Veerman said the execution was carried out without incident.

The lethal injection extended Florida's record for total executions in a single year, with the US state planning to carry out two more executions later this month and next under death warrants signed by Republican Party member Governor Ron DeSantis.

Since the US Supreme Court restored the death penalty in 1976, the highest previous annual total of Florida executions was eight in 2014.

Florida has executed more people than any other US state this year, followed by Texas with five.