Florida put Michael Bernard Bell, 54, to death by lethal injection at Florida State Prison in Starke on 15 July. Prison officials said Bell was pronounced dead at 6:25 p.m. after receiving the three-drug cocktail. Asked for last words, he replied, “Thank you for not letting me spend the rest of my life in prison.” Bell was convicted in 1995 for the 1993 killings of Jimmy West, 23, and Tamecka Smith, 18, who were gunned down with an AK-47 rifle outside a Jacksonville liquor lounge. Prosecutors said he mistook West for the man who had shot Bell’s brother earlier that year. He was later linked to three other murders dating to 1989. Governor Ron DeSantis signed Bell’s death warrant in June. Both the Florida Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court declined last-minute requests for a stay, rejecting defense claims of newly discovered evidence. Bell is the eighth inmate executed in Florida this year; a ninth execution is set for later in July. Bell’s death is the 26th execution carried out in the United States in 2025, already surpassing the 25 recorded in all of 2024 and putting the nation on course for its busiest year since 2015. Florida leads all states with eight executions, followed by Texas and South Carolina with four each.