Florida man set to be the 26th person executed in the US this year, surpassing 2024's total
So far, 25 men have been executed in 2025, tying the number of executions in 2024 and 2018. In 2015, there were 28 executions in the U.S.
Michael Bernard Bell, 54, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke, barring a last-day reprieve.
7 Death row inmate Michael Bernard Bell at an evidentiary hearing.
Doug Engle/Florida Times-Union / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
7 So far, 25 men have been executed in 2025.
AP
He was convicted in 1995 and sentenced to death for the murders of Jimmy West and Tamecka Smith.
Bell would be the eighth person put to death in Florida this year, with a ninth scheduled for later this month.
The state executed six people in 2023, but carried out only one execution last year.
Florida has executed more people than any other state this year, while Texas and South Carolina are tied for second place with four each. Alabama has executed three people, Oklahoma has killed two, and Arizona, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee each have killed one.
In December 1993, Bell spotted what he thought was the car of the man who fatally shot his brother earlier that year, according to court records.
Bell was apparently unaware that the man had sold the car to West.
7 Bell spotted what he thought was the car of the man who fatally shot his brother earlier that year, according to court records.
Doug Engle/Florida Times-Union / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
7 Defense attorney Robert Norgard shows a document that Charles Jones signed after he plead the fifth while testifying during an evidentiary hearing.
Doug Engle/Florida Times-Union / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Bell called on two friends and armed himself with an AK-47 rifle, authorities said. They found the car parked outside a liquor lounge and waited.
When West, Smith and another woman eventually exited the club, Bell approached the car and opened fire, officials said.
West died at the scene, and Smith died on the way to the hospital.
7 Attorney Donald Mayer speaking with his client Henry Edwards.
Doug Engle/Florida Times-Union / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
The other woman escaped injury.
Witnesses said Bell also fired at a crowd of onlookers before fleeing the area. He was eventually arrested the next year.
Bell was later convicted of three additional murders.
7 Charles Jones testifying at an evidentiary hearing.
Doug Engle/Florida Times-Union / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
He fatally shot a woman and her toddler son in 1989, and he killed his mother's boyfriend about four months before the attack on West and Smith, officials said.
Attorneys for Bell have filed appeals with the Florida Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court.
The lawyers argued in their state filing that Bell's execution should be halted because of newly discovered evidence about witness testimony.
7 Bell fatally shot a woman and her toddler son in 1989, and he killed his mother's boyfriend about four months before the attack on West and Smith, officials said.
Doug Engle/Florida Times-Union / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
But justices unanimously rejected the argument last week and pointed to overwhelming evidence of Bell's guilt in a 54-page opinion.
Bell's attorneys filed a similar petition with the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday, but the panel has not yet issued a ruling.
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