Execution Surge? Florida Schedules Two Death Row Executions for July
The State of Florida has scheduled the executions of two death row inmates later this month, following the latest death warrant filings signed by Governor Ron DeSantis. According to official records published by the Florida Supreme Court, Michael B. Bell and Edward J. Zakrzewski II are slated to be executed at Florida State Prison in July.
Both men appear on the Florida Supreme Court’s Pending Death Warrant Filings list, which is regularly updated to provide the public and media with the status of active execution cases. Bell’s death warrant was filed on June 30, 2025, with his execution set for July 15. Zakrzewski’s warrant followed just a day later, on July 1, 2025, with his execution scheduled for July 31.
Edward J. Zakrzewski II was convicted of one of the most shocking crimes in Northwest Florida history—the brutal 1994 murders of his wife and two children in Mary Esther. At the time, Zakrzewski was a 29-year-old U.S. Air Force Technical Sergeant stationed at Eglin Air Force Base. When his wife, Sylvia, informed him of her plans to divorce and return to South Korea with their children, Zakrzewski purchased a machete during a work break and later used it—along with a crowbar and rope—to kill all three family members. Sylvia was beaten, strangled, and mutilated; 7-year-old Edward III and 5-year-old Anna were each summoned into the bathroom and fatally struck with the machete. Both children suffered defensive wounds. Zakrzewski fled to Hawaii and evaded capture for four months before surrendering, one day after the case aired on Unsolved Mysteries. He was convicted on three counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in 1996.
Michael B. Bell was sentenced to death for a 1993 double murder in Jacksonville that was fueled by revenge. On December 9 of that year, Bell used an AK-47 to ambush and kill Jimmy West and Tamecka Smith outside a liquor lounge, mistakenly believing West was associated with the man who had killed Bell’s brother in what authorities ruled a justifiable homicide. Bell fired into the victims’ vehicle at close range—killing West with 12 bullets and Smith with four—and even shot at bystanders before fleeing. In addition to those killings, Bell was later convicted of three earlier murders: the 1989 shootings of Lashawn Cowart and her 2-year-old son Travis, and the 1993 murder of his mother’s boyfriend, Michael Johnson. Bell has unsuccessfully challenged his death sentences through numerous appeals, with both the Florida and U.S. Supreme Courts upholding the rulings.
These two scheduled executions mark the latest developments in Florida’s intensifying use of capital punishment under Governor Ron DeSantis, who has signed multiple death warrants in 2025 alone.
Most recently, Thomas Lee Gudinas, was executed on June 24 and Anthony Floyd Wainwright was executed on June 10.
Gudinas death marked the seventh execution scheduled in Florida this year. Just over a month earlier, on May 15, 2025, the state carried out the execution of convicted serial killer Glen Edward Rogers, another high-profile inmate who had long awaited his sentence.
For ongoing updates on Florida’s death penalty cases and scheduled executions, visit flcourts.gov or dc.state.fl.us.
