Kaine criticized for reprieve

WINCHESTER, Va. (AP) — The father of a police officer killed while chasing a suspect criticized Gov. Tim Kaine for delaying the execution of his son’s killer.

Richard Timbrook said he left a message at the governor’s office on Wednesday to tell Mr. Kaine he had the right to oppose the death penalty but “he didn’t have the right to push his views on me.”

Sgt. Timbrook, 32, was shot in the head during a foot chase on Oct. 29, 1999. A Winchester Circuit Court jury convicted Edward Nathaniel Bell, 42, of capital murder in January 2001 and he was sentenced to death later that year.

Mr. Kaine, a Democrat, said during his 2005 campaign for governor that he personally opposes the death penalty, but is committed to upholding Virginia’s law.

“Tim Kaine bare-face lied to us,” Mr. Timbrook said in an interview with the Winchester Star. “He had an obligation to the people.”

Gordon Hickey, a spokesman for Mr. Kaine, said yesterday the governor had no further comment on the stay.

Mr. Kaine announced on Tuesday that he decided to stay Bell’s execution — scheduled for April 8 — until July 24.

The governor also temporarily suspended all other executions in Virginia until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on the constitutionality of lethal injection.

In Baze v. Rees, the court will hear challenges to the three-chemical formula that 36 states, including Virginia, use to carry out the death penalty.

The challenge was raised by two Kentucky death row inmates who argued that the toxic cocktail causes unnecessary pain and suffering, thus violates the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

No executions have been carried out in the United States since the Supreme Court decided in September to hear the case. The justices are expected to make a ruling by mid-July.

Mr. Kaine said the reprieve for Bell “will allow for issuance of the Supreme Court decision and consideration of whether its outcome has any effect upon the merits of Bell’s legal claims or request for clemency.”

“I’ve kept my mouth shut for nine years,” Mr. Timbrook said. “But we are the ones who are being hurt, not Bell’s family. But at least he can never hurt anyone else.”

Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell, a Republican, also criticized the stay on Tuesday. He called Mr. Kaine’s decision premature because Bell had a stay request pending before the Supreme Court.

Mr. McDonnell also disagreed with what he characterized as “a blanket moratorium on all executions in Virginia.”