STARKE, Fla. -- A man who fatally shot a man and woman outside a Florida bar as part of an attempted revenge killing is scheduled to be executed on Tuesday, which would be the 26th execution carried out in the U.S. this year. So far, 25 men have been executed in 2025, tying the number of executions in 2024 and 2018. The number of executions has largely trended downward nationally this century after peaking with 98 in 1999. From 1995 to 2006, there were an average of about 67 executions per year. Michael Bernard Bell, 54, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke, barring a last-day reprieve. He was convicted in 1995 and sentenced to death for the murders of Jimmy West and Tamecka Smith. Bell would be the eighth person put to death in Florida this year,

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