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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a death warrant for Michael B. Bell, on death row since 1993 for a Jacksonville double murder.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a death warrant for Michael B. Bell, a 54-year-old who has been on death row since 1993 for a double murder in Jacksonville.
Bell shot Jimmy West and Tamecka Smith when he shot an AK-47 twelve times into the car they were traveling in.
Court documents say Bell’s brother, Lamar, was killed by West’s half brother earlier that year, which was deemed a “justifiable homicide committed in self-defense.”
After that, Bell told family and friends he vowed to get revenge. Five months later, he killed West when he mistook him for his half-brother, who had sold him his car. Smith was in the car with him outside of a lounge when it happened and was also killed.
DeSantis is on track to sign the most death warrants in Florida within a calendar year. Bell is the eighth of 2025 — tying the previous highs, in 2014 and 1984.