Kaine stays executions pending ruling on lethal injection

RICHMOND

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine on Tuesday stopped all executions in Virginia, including one of a convicted police killer set for next week, until the U.S. Supreme Court issues a ruling on the constitutionality of lethal injections.

In a written statement, Kaine noted that the death penalty has not been carried out in the United States since last Sept. 25, when the high court agreed to accept appeals from two condemned Kentucky prisoners that lethal injections can cause extreme pain that constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. During the interim, about 30 scheduled executions in 13 states have been postponed by courts or other governors, according to Kaine, a Democrat.

The Virginia governor said he is temporarily halting capital punishment “respecting the national legal consensus that no execution go forward” until the Supreme Court’s ruling, expected before mid-July.

Kaine’s action was denounced by Attorney General Bob McDonnell, a Republican who may be unopposed for his party’s gubernatorial nomination next year. He called the stay “premature,” noting that governors traditionally wait until prisoners exhaust all legal appeals before deciding whether to allow executions to occur.

“The question of whether a stay should be granted is first and foremost a legal decision to be made by a court,” McDonnell said. He said the “blanket moratorium” overrides the high court’s ability to decide on a case-by-case basis whether “Virginia capital murderers present sufficient legal grounds to stay an execution.”

Three executions by lethal injection had been scheduled in Virginia before mid-July.

Kaine’s statement only mentioned by name one prisoner who would get a reprieve: Edward Nathaniel Bell, who was scheduled to die on Tuesday, April 8, for the 1999 murder of Ricky L. Timbrook, a Winchester police sergeant. Bell shot Timbrook, 32, in the forehead during a pursuit.

The murder became an issue during the 2005 gubernatorial campaign. Kaine, a devout Roman Catholic, professed that he is personally opposed to the death penalty but pledged to carry out the sanction if elected. His opponent, Republican Jerry Kilgore, predicted that Kaine would issue widespread commutations.

The debate intensified during the final weeks of the campaign when Kilgore aired two television commercials featuring Kelly Timbrook, the widow of the fallen policeman. She questioned Kaine’s commitment to capital punishment.

“If Edward Bell’s sentence is overturned by Tim Kaine, I don’t know how I would ever explain that to my little boy,” she said in literature that was mailed to voters.

Kaine did not overturn Bell’s death sentence, however. He rescheduled the execution for July 24 – after the Supreme Court is expected to rule.

James G. Connell III, Bell’s lawyer, had a guarded reaction to the stay. “By granting this temporary reprieve, Gov. Kaine has brought Virginia into line with the national consensus,” he said.

Since becoming governor in 2006, Kaine has carried out four executions. Although he has issued two stays in addition to Bell, Kaine has not commuted a death sentence.

Lethal injection is the main method of execution in 37 of the 38 states that allow capital punishment. Nebraska uses electrocution.

In Baze v. Rees, the Supreme Court will decide whether the injections violate the Eighth Amendment prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment. The Kentucky inmates argue that flaws in the administration of powerful sedatives have left prisoners conscious and in agony while they are dying, but unable to cry out.

Three weeks after agreeing to hear the case last fall, the high court stopped an execution in Virginia. Although justices gave no reason for granting a reprieve to Christopher Scott Emmett of Danville four hours before his scheduled death, legal experts widely interpreted it as the court’s wish to halt lethal injections until it ruled on the punishment.

Virginia has executed 98 people since 1976, second to Texas.

Warren Fiske, (804) 697-1565, warren.fiske@pilotonline.com