STARK, Fla. (AP) — A man who fatally shot a man and a woman outside a Florida bar is scheduled to be executed Tuesday.
Michael Bernard Bell, 54, is due to receive a fatal injection at the Florida State Jail near Stark, except for a last day’s resignation. He was convicted in 1995 and sentenced to death for the murders of Jimmy West and Tamecca Smith.
Bell will be the eighth person in Florida this year, with a ninth expected later this month. The state executed six people in 2023, but last year it only carried out one run.
This year, 25 men have already been executed in the US, linking the totals from last year.
Florida executed more people this year than any other state, while Texas and South Carolina each placed fourth and second. Alabama executed three people. Oklahoma killed two, each of which was killed by Arizona, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee.
In December 1993, Bell found what he thought was the car of the man who fatally shot his brother earlier that year, according to court records. Bell clearly didn’t know that the man had sold the car west.
Bell called out two friends and was armed with an AK-47 rifle, authorities said. They found the car parked outside the liquor lounge and waited. When West, Smith and another woman finally left the club, Bell approached the car and sparked a fire, officials said.
Nishi died at the scene and Smith died on his way to the hospital. Other women survived injuries. Witnesses said Bell fired a crowd of spectators before fleeing the area. He was eventually arrested the following year.
Bell was later convicted of three additional murders. He fatally shot a woman and infant son in 1989, killing his mother’s boyfriend about four months before the attack on West and Smith, officials said.
Bell’s lawyers have filed appeals to the Florida Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court.
The lawyers argued in the state submission that Bell’s execution should be suspended due to newly discovered evidence of witness testimony. However, the judge unanimously rejected the argument last week, pointing to overwhelming evidence of Bell’s guilt in a 54-page opinion.
Bell’s lawyers filed a similar petition with the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday, but the panel has not yet issued a ruling.
