TALHASSEE — Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday signed a death warrant for a man convicted of killing two people in Duval County in 1993, setting the stage for this year’s record-breaking eighth execution.
DeSantis has signed the death warrant for 54-year-old Michael Bernard Bell, according to information posted on the state Supreme Court website.
When the state kills Bell with a fatal injection and carries out the execution of Thomas Gudinas on June 24, it would be the most enforceable in a year since the death penalty was revived in 1976 after the US Supreme Court ruling was suspended. Florida executed eight prisoners in 1984 and 2014. A list show from the Florida Department of Corrections.
According to court documents, Bell was sentenced to death by Jimmy West and Tamecca Smith outside a bar in Jacksonville in December 1993. Bell used his AK-47 rifle to get into the car and shoot the pair.
Documents from past Florida Supreme Court and U.S. Supreme Court appeals say Bell is seeking revenge for the death of a brother who was killed by West’s brother in early 1993.
According to the Department of Corrections website, Bell also said he has sentenced him to 25 years in prison for three second-degree homicide fees that are unrelated to shootings outside the bar.
The warrant for death came three days after the state executed Anthony Wainwright. He was convicted in 1994 of luring a woman in the parking lot of Wynn Dixie’s supermarket in Lake City and raping and murdering her in the countryside of Hamilton County.
DeSantis also signed a warrant for Gudinas, who was convicted of the May 1994 murder of Michelle McGrath. McGrath’s body was found in an alley around 7:30am and “was savagely raped and beaten by the accused with dull tools,” a circuit judge wrote in Gudinas’s ruling.
Gudinas’ attorneys had not passed a sentence early on Friday evening, but asked the Florida Supreme Court to suspend the executions.
This year’s state also executed Glen Rogers on May 15th. Jeffrey Hutchinson on May 1st. Michael Tansy on April 8th. Edward James on March 20th. James Ford on February 13th.
Meanwhile, the state killed one prisoner in 2024 and six in 2023. No one did it in 2020, 2021, or 2022.
Jim Sanders, Florida news service
