FLORIDA – On Tuesday, the state of Florida is set to execute Michael Bernard Bell for the 1993 murders of two people outside the Moncrief Liquors and Lounge.
If carried out, Bell’s execution will mark the eighth in Florida in 2025, tying a record set in 1984 and 2014 for the most times the death penalty has been carried out in one year for the state.
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Bell was convicted of the double murder of 18-year-old Tamecka Smith and 23-year-old Jimmy West. Prosecutors said Bell used an AK-47 in the attack and opened fire on the pair as they sat in a car. A third woman was able to duck down when the shots rang out, avoiding injury.
Court testimony from the trial showed Bell’s brother, Lamar, had been killed in a shootout by West’s brother, Theodore Wright. The shooting was deemed to be justified. The trial notes indicated Bell was angry and had vowed revenge for the death of his younger brother.
Bell also pleaded guilty to the 1989 murders of LaShawn Cowart and her 2-year-old son, Travis. Court filings show Cowart had once been Bell’s girlfriend. He also pleaded guilty to killing Michael Johnson, his mother’s boyfriend.
In 2025, executions in Florida have moved at a much faster pace, something veteran prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda, who has handled numerous death penalty cases, applauded Governor DeSantis for.
“It’s about time, quite frankly,” de la Rionda said.
De la Rionda, who is technically retired from the State Attorney’s Office, still handles some death penalty cases and works as a consultant. He has witnessed two executions, and said overwhelmingly, victims’ families are in favor of the state seeking the death penalty in the case of their loved ones.
“Some of it is probably retribution, but quite frankly, most of it is...they have suffered, and they continue to suffer,” de la Rionda said. “And some of their arguments from victims’ families are, ‘why does this guy deserve to live and why do we have to pay for him to stay there?”
De la Rionda also highlighted the many decades that inmates who are sentenced to death spend housed in the Florida prison system, citing the many years of appeals, which are automatic and mandatory.
Maria DeLiberato, Executive Director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, has long protested executions, emphasizing the importance of a lengthy appeals process, especially in Florida, where wrongful convictions have occurred.
DeLiberato also expressed concerns over HB 903, a new law that expands execution methods to include anything “not deemed unconstitutional.”
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“That could certainly open the door for Florida to execute via nitrogen gas, via firing squad, hanging,” DeLiberato said. “Really, the possibilities are endless.”
As Michael Bell awaits his execution, the debate over capital punishment in Florida continues. With a ninth death warrant recently signed by the governor, the state remains at the forefront of discussions on the death penalty and its implications.
Court records filed in the Bell case state that dozens of Florida Death Row inmates had once been at the infamous Dozier School for Boys in Marianna. Survivors detailed years of physical and sexual abuse at the now-closed reform school. Bell’s aunt, Paula Goins, testified at his June 23 evidentiary hearing that he was “never the same” when he returned home from the facility as a teenager.
Last year, Florida lawmakers passed a bill setting aside millions in compensation to Dozier School survivors.
“So, on one hand, the legislature and the governor recognized the harm that the state of Florida caused, and yet, on the other hand, they’re signing death warrants,” DeLiberato said. “Loran Cole was executed last year, he was also a Dozier survivor. There’s a number of folks on Death Row who are Dozier survivors.”
Barring any last-minute stays, Bell is set to be executed at 6:00 p.m. Tuesday, July 15th, at Florida State Prison in Starke.
