Miami (AFP) – A 54-year-old man convicted of a 1993 revenge killing was put to death in Florida on Tuesday, in the 26th execution in the United States this year, the most in a decade. Michael Bell was executed by lethal injection at the Florida State Prison in Raiford for the murders of Jimmy West, 23, and Tamecka Smith, 18. A brief statement from the Florida Department of Corrections confirmed that the execution was carried out at 6:25 pm (2225 GMT).
There have been eight executions in Florida this year and 26 across the nation, the most since the 28 executions of 2015. Nine other executions are currently scheduled this year. Bell was convicted in 1995 of shooting West and Smith outside a liquor store in Jacksonville and sentenced to death. According to court records, Bell was seeking revenge for the killing of his brother Lamar Bell several months earlier by West’s half-brother, Theodore Wright.
Citing new evidence and recanted trial testimony, Bell had been seeking to halt his execution, but the Florida Supreme Court denied his latest appeal, saying the evidence of his guilt was “overwhelming.” Twenty-one executions have been carried out by lethal injection in the United States this year. Two have been by firing squad and three by nitrogen hypoxia, which involves pumping nitrogen gas into a face mask, causing the prisoner to suffocate. The use of nitrogen gas as a method of capital punishment has been denounced by United Nations experts as cruel and inhumane.
The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states, while three others — California, Oregon and Pennsylvania — have moratoriums in place. President Donald Trump is a proponent of capital punishment, and on his first day in office called for an expansion of its use “for the vilest crimes.”
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