US Hits 10-Year Execution High as Florida Executes Inmate for Double Murder

Florida's Execution of Michael Bernard Bell Marks a Record for U.S. Executions

Florida has executed death row inmate Michael Bernard Bell, marking a 10-year high for executions in the United States. Bell was put to death on Tuesday, July 15, for the revenge killings of 23-year-old Jimmy West and 18-year-old Tamecka Smith outside a Jacksonville bar on December 9, 1993. Bell had gone on a violent rampage with an AK-47, resulting in the deaths of two innocent people.

Bell was pronounced dead at 6:25 p.m. ET, becoming the 26th inmate executed in the U.S. this year. This number surpasses the 25 executions conducted in the nation during all of last year. The U.S. has now seen more executions in any given year since 2015, when there were 28.

A Historic Trend in Executions

“We’re in the midst of something historic,” said Robert Dunham, director of the Death Penalty Policy Project, in an interview with USA TODAY. Another nine executions are scheduled this year, with more expected to be added to the calendar.

The rise in executions is not just a national trend but also a state-level phenomenon. Bell’s execution marked the eighth in Florida this year, a number that has only occurred twice in the last five decades: in 1984 and 2014. The state has another execution scheduled later this month, which could push it to a record if it proceeds.

Last Words and Last Meal

Bell kept his final words simple, according to an Associated Press reporter who witnessed the execution. He said, “Thank you for not letting me spend the rest of my life in prison.” His last meal included an omelet, bacon, home fries, and orange juice. Media witnesses reported that nothing unexpected happened during the execution.

Background of the Crime

In June 1993, a man named Theodore Wright killed Michael Bell's brother in self-defense. Afterward, Bell broadcasted his plans for revenge, stating, "Wright belongs in the morgue," according to court records. Almost six months later, Bell spotted what he thought was Wright's distinctive yellow Plymouth Fury outside a Jacksonville bar. However, Wright had sold the car to his half-brother, 23-year-old Jimmy West.

West left the bar with 18-year-old Tamecka Smith and another woman. As they were getting into the car, Bell used an AK-47 to spray the group with bullets and then fired on people nearby, according to court records. Although Bell did not realize West had bought the car, he recognized him as Wright's brother before opening fire and proceeded anyway, court records say.

Bell later told his aunt: "Theodore got my brother and now I got his brother," court records say.

Legal Proceedings and Sentencing

At trial, Judge R. Hudson Olliff lamented how Bell received early release from prison three separate times before West's and Smith's murders, including once for an armed robbery, following years of repeated arrests and convictions. “Seven months after that early release the defendant committed this savage double murder of an innocent 23-year-old man and a teenaged girl,” Olliff said during Bell's sentencing. “These two murders can be laid at the doorstep of the Florida Parole Commission for the irresponsible early prison release of this violent habitual criminal who should have been in prison at the time the murders were committed.”

Olliff described the murders as “cold and calculated and with heightened premeditation.” Bell's attorneys fought to win him a reprieve but were unsuccessful. Most recently, the Florida Supreme Court rejected arguments that witnesses who helped convict Bell wanted to recant their testimony, with the justices citing the “overwhelming evidence” in the case.

Rising Executions and Political Influence

After Tuesday's execution, at least nine more inmates are set to be executed by the end of the year. If they all proceed, that would mean at least 35 executions this year—a 40% increase over last year. Though it would still be far from the busiest execution year ever in the U.S.—98 in 1999—the stage is set for the nation to reverse a long-term downward trend.

Some experts attribute the current rise in executions to the political climate in the U.S. and a conservative-leaning U.S. Supreme Court. According to interviews conducted by USA TODAY with a half dozen experts and a Republican lawmaker in Florida, the Supreme Court—shaped by three conservative appointments made by President Donald Trump during his first term in office—has proven less likely to issue stays of execution than previous courts.

Florida's Role in the Execution Surge

Florida has executed more inmates than any other state this year, with eight already carried out and another scheduled for July 31. State Rep. Berny Jacques, a Republican who has spearheaded multiple recent pieces of successful pro-death penalty legislation in his state, attributes this year's increases to "the political environment not only in our state but nationwide."

Jacques pointed to the social unrest in the U.S. in the wake of George Floyd's death at the hands of police in 2020 and recent ongoing immigration protests, saying many Americans are frustrated with "rioting in the streets" and want leaders to be tougher on crime.

Legislative Changes and Controversies

Among the pro-death penalty legislation that Jacques proposed this year is House Bill 903. Signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in May and effective on July 1, the law expands the state's options for execution methods from lethal injection and the electric chair to other methods. The bill doesn’t call for any particular method as long as a method is not deemed unconstitutional. Everything’s on the table, according to Jacques.

Jacques also spearheaded a law this year expanding the death penalty to be used for a crime that doesn't involve murder: the sexual trafficking of children under 12 or of people who are mentally incapacitated. It goes into effect in October.

On July 8, Tampa Pentecostal minister Demetrius Minor marched to Gov. Ron DeSantis' office in Tallahassee, carrying a letter signed by 100 Florida Christians asking him to stop the executions. Minor criticized the death penalty, calling it "about power" rather than public safety.

When asked for comment, the governor's office pointed to DeSantis' thoughts on the issue in May, when he said that he signs death warrants to help bring closure to families who've been waiting sometimes decades for their loved one's killer to be executed.