Overview

• Michael Bernard Bell, 54, is set for lethal injection today at Florida State Prison for the 1993 ambush killings of Jimmy West and Tamecka Smith in a botched revenge plot.
• Florida’s highest court unanimously denied Bell’s last-day stay request last week, citing overwhelming evidence of his guilt in a 54-page opinion.
• Bell’s attorneys have appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court on newly discovered witness evidence, but the justices have yet to rule.
• Today’s execution will be the 26th nationwide this year and the eighth in Florida, marking the highest U.S. annual total in a decade.
• Beyond the 1993 murders, Bell was convicted of three additional killings between 1989 and 1993, highlighting his history of violent recidivism.