Scheduled Florida execution would be 26th in U.S. this year, surpassing total for all of 2024

Starke, Fla. — A man who fatally shot a man and woman outside a Florida bar as part of an attempted revenge killing is scheduled to be executed on Tuesday. It would be the 26th execution in the U.S. this year. There were 25 nationwide in all of 2024.

Michael Bernard Bell, 54, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke, barring a last-day reprieve. 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.