Posted on 02/19/2009 10:02:01 PM PST by freespirited
The killer of a Winchester police officer whose case became a flash point in the debate over Gov. Timothy M. Kaine's views on the death penalty was executed last night by lethal injection after Kaine declined to intervene.
Edward N. Bell was ... pronounced dead at the Greensville Correctional Center at 9:11 p.m., said Larry Traylor, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Corrections. Bell, 44, was convicted in the 1999 killing of Sgt. Ricky L. Timbrook, who was shot while chasing a probation violator.
Although capital punishment has been the subject of long-standing debate in Virginia, the case had particular resonance for Kaine (D), a Catholic who personally opposes the death penalty but has said he will enforce the law. Timbrook's widow, Kelly, denounced Kaine's views in an emotional television ad during the 2005 gubernatorial campaign.
"How could you not think the death penalty was appropriate?" Timbrook, who was pregnant when her husband was slain, said in the ad made for Kaine's Republican opponent, Jerry W. Kilgore. "When Tim Kaine calls the death penalty murder, I find it offensive.''
...But since he took office in 2006, Kaine has allowed nine executions and commuted one sentence. Yesterday, the governor said he had denied Bell's petition for clemency.
...Bell was the 103rd inmate executed in Virginia's death chamber since the Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976. The state is second only to Texas, which has executed 431 people.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
And we're proud of it too.
Great! And only 9 years!
This is insane. This guy was executed after only 10 years? Where were his Death Penalty Project lawyers? Where was Mike Farrell, Geraldo, Jesse, Al, Jean Prejean, Sean Penn, Moe, Larry and Curly? Why didn’t he get 55 years of appeals, women breaking down the walls to marry him, France naming streets after him?What about the last minute discovery of witnesses who saw him in Monaco playing baccharat at the time of the shooting? Fetal alcohol syndrome must have been to blame, wasn’t it? Condemned prisoners in Wyoming saying they did the killing? Nobel Peace Prize? Calling Oprah! This couldn’t have cost the state much more than a few thousand bucks; where’s the shame?
Virginia has a long way to go ‘til they do a death penalty case right. When you decide you want to be in the death penalty big leagues, give us a call in California.
Good riddance to bad trash.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.