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“compiled:Sophia Bennett”
Michael Bernard Bell, 54, was executed by lethal injection Tuesday evening at Florida State Prison for the 1993 murders of Jimmy West and Tamecka Smith in a botched revenge shooting. Bell, who also had three other murder convictions on his record, was pronounced dead at 6:25 p.m. after telling the prison warden, “Thank you for not letting me spend the rest of my life in prison.”
The Florida Department of Corrections reported that Bell had no visitors, aside from a spiritual adviser, before his execution. His last meal was a classic breakfast: omelet, bacon, home fries, and orange juice.
Bell’s death is Florida’s eighth execution this year, pushing the national total to 26 — already surpassing 2024’s full-year tally. Legal experts say this uptick stems not from changing public sentiment, but from aggressive state officials and a renewed federal push under President Trump to reinvigorate capital punishment.
Bell’s final appeal, which cited new evidence about witness testimony, was unanimously rejected by Florida’s Supreme Court, with the U.S. Supreme Court also denying a stay.
In 1993, Bell mistook a car parked outside a Florida bar for one owned by the man who killed his brother. Unaware the vehicle had been sold, Bell used an AK-47 to ambush the car’s new owner, Jimmy West, killing him and bystander Tamecka Smith. He later fled and was arrested in 1994.
Bell had previously been convicted of three other killings, including a woman and her young son in 1989, and his mother’s boyfriend.
Florida leads the U.S. in executions this year, with a ninth already scheduled. Texas and South Carolina follow, each with four.
