{"id":30857,"date":"2025-07-17T01:11:18","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T01:11:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/?p=30857"},"modified":"2025-07-17T01:11:18","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T01:11:18","slug":"florida-death-row-inmate-had-surprising-final-words-before-execution-by-lethal-injection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/?p=30857","title":{"rendered":"Florida death row inmate had surprising final words before execution by lethal injection"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

America has now executed 26 death row inmates in 2025, surpassing last year’s figures.<\/strong><\/p>\n

25 people were put to death in the US<\/a> in 2024 and its scheduled that a total of 35 death row<\/a> inmates will die this year, per<\/a> the Death Penalty Information Center.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, for 2026, there are already eight death penalties set to be carried out.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

The 26th person to be put to death this year was Michael Bernard Bell, who was pronounced dead yesterday (July 15) at Florida<\/a> State Prison, where he had been holed up for two decades.<\/p>\n

Bell was facing the death penalty for the murders of Jimmy West, 23, and 18-year-old Tamecka Smith outside a Florida bar in 1993.<\/p>\n

On the night in question Bell saw West driving a car<\/a> that used to belong to the person who was responsible for his brother’s death.<\/p>\n

With this in mind, Bell believed West was linked to his sibling’s murder and went on to recruit two of his friends to help him open fire on the vehicle.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"Florida<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Florida State Prison is the jail where serial killer Aileen Wuornos was executed (Chris Livingston\/Getty Images)<\/cite><\/div>\n

But authorities said that West and Smith, who was also killed in the shooting<\/a>, had nothing to do with Bell’s brother’s passing.<\/p>\n

West died at the scene while Smith died in the ambulance on the way to hospital. A third person was also in the car who miraculously survived the incident.<\/p>\n

As well as West and Smith’s murders, Bell was later convicted for the deaths of three others, New York Post reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He fatally shot a mom and her toddler son in 1989 and, just a few months before West and Smith’s slaying, Bell murdered his own mother’s boyfriend.<\/p>\n

After 20 years behind bars, Bell was pronounced dead at 6:25pm local time yesterday.<\/p>\n

Speaking before the lethal injection was administered Bell said: “Thank you for not letting me spend the rest of my life in prison.”<\/p>\n

These were the 54-year-old’s final words.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"Michael<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Michael Bernard Bell was convicted in 1995 (Florida Department of Corrections)<\/cite><\/div>\n

Eight of 2025’s executions have taken place in Florida, with a ninth set to take place later this month.<\/p>\n

This is a dramatic change to last year when the state only carried out one death sentence.<\/p>\n

The next person set to be killed is Edward J. Zakrzewski II who will be put to death on July 31.<\/p>\n

Like Bell, Zakrzewski has been in prison since the 1990s having been convicted in 1996 for the death of his wife and their sons, aged five and seven.<\/p>\n

Reportedly Zakrzewksi’s wife was trying to divorce him which sparked his fatal attack on her.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Featured Image Credit: Florida Department of Corrections<\/cite><\/p>\n

Topics:\u00a0Crime<\/a>, Florida<\/a>, US News<\/a>, Death Row<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    America has now executed 26 death row inmates in 2025, surpassing last year’s figures. 25 people were put to death in the US in 2024 and its scheduled … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30859,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30857"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30860,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30857\/revisions\/30860"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}