{"id":60770,"date":"2025-07-12T23:16:31","date_gmt":"2025-07-12T23:16:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/60770\/"},"modified":"2025-07-12T23:16:31","modified_gmt":"2025-07-12T23:16:31","slug":"jacksonville-convicted-killer-files-last-ditch-appeal-at-supreme-court-in-attempt-to-halt-upcoming-execution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/60770\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacksonville convicted killer files last-ditch appeal at Supreme Court in attempt to halt upcoming execution"},"content":{"rendered":"

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. <\/strong> \u2013 Attorneys for convicted killer Michael Bell<\/a> have filed a last-ditch appeal at the U.S. Supreme Court to try to prevent Bell\u2019s scheduled execution Tuesday in the 1993 murders of two people outside a Jacksonville bar.<\/p>\n

A 24-page petition filed Thursday focused on witnesses who in recent weeks recanted testimony that helped convict Bell in the murders of Jimmie West and Tamecka Smith. During a June 23 evidentiary hearing in Duval County circuit court, however, witnesses invoked their 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination instead of detailing the recanted testimony because of concerns they could face perjury charges.<\/p>\n

RELATED | <\/b>Duval judge denies new trial for Death Row inmate scheduled for execution: The Tributary<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Circuit Judge Jeb Branham and the Florida Supreme Court subsequently refused to halt the scheduled execution. The petition filed at the U.S. Supreme Court said the \u201cspector of perjury, introduced by the state (prosecutors) and magnified by the trial court (circuit judge), deprived Bell of crucial evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWitness after witness was permitted to invoke the Fifth Amendment privilege and refuse to answer crucial questions, sabotaging Bell\u2019s last opportunity to bring to light new evidence prior to his execution,\u201d the petition said.<\/p>\n

The petition came two days after the Florida Supreme Court rejected similar arguments and pointed to \u201coverwhelming evidence of Bell\u2019s guilt.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Court documents said Bell was accused of using an AK-47 rifle to murder West and Smith as they got into a car. Bell allegedly was seeking revenge for the death of his brother, who had been killed by West\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

MORE | <\/b>Witnesses in case of man facing death for Jacksonville murders were told by JSO to lie on the stand, attorneys say<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

After DeSantis signed the death warrant, Henry Edwards and Charles Jones, who had been witnesses during Bell\u2019s 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\u2019s attorneys have argued.<\/p>\n

In addition to Edwards and Jones, other witnesses also took the 5th Amendment during last month\u2019s hearing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe witnesses here were reasonably expected to repeat in court what they told Bell\u2019s investigators and thus provide testimony favorable to Bell,\u201d Bell\u2019s attorneys wrote in the U.S. Supreme Court petition. \u201cThe 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\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Florida Attorney General\u2019s Office had not filed arguments at the U.S. Supreme Court as of Friday morning, according to an online docket.<\/p>\n

But the Florida Supreme Court on Tuesday rebuffed arguments made by Bell\u2019s attorneys.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe overwhelming evidence presented at Bell\u2019s trial established that for some time before the murders, Bell told multiple people that he wanted revenge on Theodore Wright for killing Bell\u2019s brother months earlier,\u201d the Florida Supreme Court\u2019s main opinion said. \u201cBell, 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

The opinion added, \u201cOn the night of the murders, Bell\u2019s close friend, Dale George, rode with Bell to the liquor lounge in Bell\u2019s 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\u2019s seat. Bell continued to fire the AK-47 at the lounge while trying to escape.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. \u2013 Attorneys for convicted killer Michael Bell have filed a last-ditch appeal at the U.S. Supreme…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":60771,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,8314,3188,723,7310,43936,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-60770","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-duval-county","10":"tag-fl","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-jacksonville","13":"tag-michael-bell","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-united-states-of-america","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114842814832542182","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}