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Starke, Fla. — A man convicted of fatally shooting two people outside a Florida bar in 1993 as part of an attempted revenge killing was executed Tuesday evening, the 26th person put to death in the U.S. this year, surpassing 25 nationwide in all of 2024 and the most since 25 in 2018, .
Michael Bernard Bell, 54, was pronounced dead at 6:25 p.m. after receiving a lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke, said Bryan Griffin, a spokesperson for Gov. Ron DeSantis. Bell was convicted in 1995 and sentenced to death for the murders of Jimmy West and Tamecka Smith.
When the team warden asked Bell if he had any final words, he responded, "Thank you for not letting me spend the rest of my life in prison."
Bell is 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 have each executed four people. Alabama has executed three people, Oklahoma two, and Arizona, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee have carried out one each.
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.
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. The other woman escaped injury. Witnesses said Bell also fired at a crowd of onlookers before fleeing the area. He was arrested the following year.
Bell was later convicted of three additional murders. 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.
Prison officials said Bell woke up at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday and ate his last meal, which was an omelet, bacon, home fries and orange juice. He met with a spiritual adviser but did not have any other visitors.
The U.S. Supreme Court denied Bell's request to stay the execution on Tuesday.
His lawyers argued in their state filing that Bell's execution should be halted because of newly discovered evidence about witness testimony. But justices unanimously rejected the argument last week and pointed to overwhelming evidence of Bell's guilt in a 54-page opinion.
