A Florida man will be the 26th person to be executed nationwide this year, marking the most death penalty sentences carried out in a single year since 2015.

STARKE, Fla. — A man who killed two people outside a Jacksonville bar in 1993 was put to death Tuesday evening. Michael Bernard Bell, 54, was given a lethal injection at Florida State Prison. He was convicted of killing Jimmy West and Tamecka Smith. Prosecutors say he opened fire on them as they were leaving a bar in December 1993.

A nonprofit identified at least 50 people who attended Dozier and Okeechobee, a similar state-run reform school, who ended up on death row. The documented abuses at those schools have advocates asking for leniency.

Barring a reprieve, Michael Bell will become the eighth person put to death in Florida this year, with Edward Zakrzewski scheduled to be the ninth on July 31.

The United States is likely to reach a 10-year high for capital punishment before August arrives with Florida set to execute death row inmate Michael Bernard Bell by lethal injection at 6 p.m. EDT Tue

Michael Bell would be the eighth person put to death in Florida this year, with Edward Zakrzewski scheduled to be the ninth later this month. The state executed six people in 2023 but only one last year.