The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a plea to block the execution of a Florida man who was convicted of gunning down a Jacksonville couple more than 30 years ago, clearing the way for him to be executed.
Michael Bell died by lethal injection at 6:25 p.m.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Justice Elena Kagan would have granted the stay of execution so the court could have heard Bell’s appeal. The court provided no reason for the denial.
Bell, 54, was convicted and sentenced to death in the double murder of Jimmy West and Tamecka Smith. Bell also later pleaded guilty to three other murders: a woman and her toddler son in 1989 and the killing of his mother’s boyfriend about four months after the West-Smith murders.
The deaths of West and Smith were a case of mistaken identity. Bell, according to court records, wanted revenge on the man who killed his brother, Lamar. Neither West nor Smith were involved in Lamar Bell’s death.
The jury in the West-Smith case unanimously recommended a death sentence for each conviction.
The high court allowed the execution despite frantic efforts by Bell’s defense team, which entered into evidence sworn statements from two prosecution witnesses who said they were coerced by Jacksonville authorities to lie on the stand at trial decades earlier.
Hours before his scheduled execution, Bell’s niece released a statement via Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty saying, “I’m the daughter of (Bell’s) brother who passed away named Lamar Bell. I was 2 years old when my dad passed away and never got a chance to meet him and now my uncle, who I’ve never met either, is about to leave this earth without saying goodbye. Love you Uncle Michael.”
Soon after the death warrant was signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, Bell’s legal team submitted affidavits from two witnesses who testified in the 1995 trial. In their signed statements, each claimed they were coached to give false trial testimony by Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Detective William Bolena. One of the witnesses signed an affidavit in June saying that he did not see Bell pull a ski mask over his face and commit the murders, contrary to his trial testimony, but rather only heard gunshots from his vantage point inside a liquor store.
During a June 23 evidentiary hearing in front of Duval County Circuit Judge Jeb Branham, both men were told they could face perjury charges if they admitted having lied during Bell’s 1995 murder trial. Each was afforded an attorney to consult with before repeating their recantations under oath.
Neither man would tell the court what they told Bell’s investigator under oath.
One of the men, Charles Jones, invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and didn’t answer any questions. The other man, Henry Edwards testified that he thought the investigator who visited him was seeking his input on a fictionalized movie script.
Appellate attorney Robert Norgard objected to Branham allowing the witnesses to use the Fifth Amendment as a “blanket” protection.
The next day, Branham denied relief for Bell, refusing to grant a new trial or a resentencing hearing. Branham said he found Edwards to be more credible than Bell’s investigator, who did not record his interviews with either man.
The Florida Supreme Court upheld Branham’s decision.
Bell will be the eighth person executed by the state this year following June’s execution of Thomas Gudinas, 51, who was convicted of raping and killing Michelle McGrath outside of an Orlando bar in 1994.
Nichole Manna is The Tributary’s senior investigative reporter. You can reach her at nichole.manna@jaxtrib.org.
