Lawyers for Michael Bell Submit Appeal to Halt Execution at the Supreme Court

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Lawyers representing convicted murderer Michael Bell have submitted a final appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court in hopes of halting Bell’s impending execution on July 15. Bell was sentenced for the 1993 killings of two individuals outside a Jacksonville bar.

The 24-page appeal, filed on Thursday, concentrated on recent recantations by witnesses whose testimonies were pivotal in convicting Bell for the murders of Jimmie West and Tamecka Smith. At a June 23 hearing in Duval County circuit court, these witnesses chose to invoke their 5th Amendment rights against self-incrimination, fearing potential perjury charges if they elaborated on their recantations.

Circuit Judge Jeb Branham and the Florida Supreme Court have both declined to intervene in stopping the execution. The appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court argues that the “threat of perjury charges, presented by the state prosecutors and amplified by the trial court, denied Bell access to key evidence.”

“Witness after witness was permitted to invoke the Fifth Amendment privilege and refuse to answer crucial questions, sabotaging Bell’s last opportunity to bring to light new evidence prior to his execution,” the petition said.

The petition came two days after the Florida Supreme Court rejected similar arguments and pointed to “overwhelming evidence of Bell’s guilt.”

Gov. Ron DeSantis on June 13 signed a death warrant for Bell, 54, who would become the eighth inmate executed this year in Florida. If the execution is carried out, it would tie a modern-era record for executions carried out in a year. Florida also executed eight inmates in 1984 and 2014.

DeSantis last week also signed a death warrant for Edward Zakrzewski, who was convicted of using a crowbar and a machete to murder his wife and two children in 1994 in Okaloosa County. Zakrzewski, 60, is slated to be executed July 31 at Florida State Prison.

Court documents said Bell was accused of using an AK-47 rifle to murder West and Smith while seeking revenge for the death of his brother, who had been killed by West’s half-brother, Theodore Wright, earlier in 1993. Bell did not know that Wright had sold the car to West before the shooting, according to the documents.

After DeSantis signed the death warrant, Henry Edwards and Charles Jones, who had been witnesses during Bell’s 1995 trial, recanted testimony to investigators for Bell. Edwards and Jones gave the original testimony in exchange for favorable treatment from police on other matters, Bell’s attorneys have argued.

In addition to Edwards and Jones, other witnesses also took the 5th Amendment during last month’s hearing.

“The witnesses here were reasonably expected to repeat in court what they told Bell’s investigators and thus provide testimony favorable to Bell,” Bell’s attorneys wrote in the U.S. Supreme Court petition. “The only reason they did not do that was the threat of perjury. Had the recanters and the other supportive witnesses not been dissuaded by the perjury threat, there is reason to believe that the trial court would have found two separate and distinct recantations credible and granted Bell’s motion for a new trial or at least a new penalty phase. So, Bell was harmed by the prevention of testimony that would have bolstered his case.”

The Florida Attorney General’s Office had not filed arguments at the U.S. Supreme Court as of Friday morning, according to an online docket.

But the Florida Supreme Court on Tuesday rebuffed arguments made by Bell’s attorneys.

“The overwhelming evidence presented at Bell’s trial established that for some time before the murders, Bell told multiple people that he wanted revenge on Theodore Wright for killing Bell’s brother months earlier,” the Florida Supreme Court’s main opinion said. “Bell, under the guise of needing a gun for protection, asked his then-girlfriend, Ericka Williams, to buy an AK-47. The day before the murders, Bell accompanied Williams to buy an AK-47, magazine devices and bullets. Bell took the gun and other items after he and Williams left the gun store.”

The opinion added, “On the night of the murders, Bell’s close friend, Dale George, rode with Bell to the liquor lounge in Bell’s car. Bell retrieved the AK-47 from the back seat of his car, placed a mask over his head and walked to the car that West, Smith, and another woman were entering. Bell fired multiple shots, hitting West and Smith, and then ran back to his car where George had moved into the driver’s seat. Bell continued to fire the AK-47 at the lounge while trying to escape.”