A new CAP has been crossed in the United States. Tuesday evening, Florida executed Michael Bell, 54, convicted of a double murder committed in 1993. This is the 26th execution in the country since the start of the year – a record that had not been reached since 2015. Michael Bell was among the thirty death row -ons passed by the Florida School for Boys, an establishment for minors known for its systemic violence, closed in 2011.
Michael Bell received a lethal injection at 6.25 p.m. at the Raiford penitentiary in the north of the state. He had been sentenced to death for having killed Jimmy West, 23, and Tamecka Smith, 18, in poorly directed revenge: seeking to do justice after the death of his brother, he had mistakenly murdered the brother of the alleged murderer, as well as a young girl present on the scene.
A sad record for Florida
With this execution, Florida has totaled eight since January, a figure that places the state among the most active in the application of capital punishment. According to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), “the increase in executions this year is the result of the decisions of some officials elected in a small number of states”. The organization specifies that more than half of the executions took place in Florida, Texas and South Carolina.
Our file on the death penalty
Of the 26 executions recorded in 2025, 21 were led by lethal injection. Three used nitrogen inhalation, a controversial method introduced into Alabama in 2024 and denounced by the UN as a possible form of “torture”. Two other executions were carried out by execution peloton in South Carolina. Currently, 23 of the 50 states have abolished the death penalty, while California, Oregon and Pennsylvania have suspended it by moratorium.
