Killer is executed for murder of officer

JARRATT -- Winchester police officer's killer is executed

Maintaining his claim of innocence to the end, Edward Nathaniel Bell was executed by injection last night for the Oct. 29, 1999, slaying of Winchester police Sgt. Ricky L. Timbrook.

"To the Timbrook family, you definitely have the wrong person," the Jamaican national said in his last statement, according to Larry Traylor, spokesman for the Virginia Department of Corrections. "The truth will come out one day. This here, killing me, there's no justice about it."

Traylor said it was difficult to understand Bell because of his accent.

Bell needed assistance coming into the execution chamber, Traylor said. "He obviously could not come in under his own power."

An execution witness, Northern Virginia Daily reporter Garren Shipley, said of Bell: "Whether he was unable or unwilling, I don't know."

Bell, 43, was pronounced dead at 9:11 p.m., Traylor said. It was the 103rd execution in Virginia since the death penalty was restored in 1976.

Bell was sentenced to die for killing Timbrook, 32, who was shot once in the head from close range while chasing Bell on foot. Bell was on probation, and the two had earlier run-ins.

The killer's last hope was Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, who personally opposes the death penalty. But in a statement released yesterday about 4 p.m., Kaine declined to interfere.

"Bell's trial, verdict and sentence have been reviewed by state and federal courts, including the Supreme Court of Virginia, United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court," Kaine noted.

He said that "having carefully reviewed the petition for clemency and judicial opinions regarding this case, I find no compelling reason to set aside the sentence that was recommended by the jury, and then imposed and affirmed by the courts."

Timbrook's wife, Kelly, was pregnant with their first child when Timbrook was slain. In 2005, she appeared in a television campaign ad on behalf of Kaine's Republican opponent for governor, former Virginia Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore.

According to news accounts, family members said Kelly Timbrook was to have been among the witnesses to Bell's execution. The Department of Corrections does not disclose the identity of victim family witnesses, but it confirmed that some witnessed the execution.

In a 41-page clemency petition to Kaine, Bell's lawyers pointed out that a federal judge found that Bell's trial lawyers did not perform up to constitutional snuff during the sentencing phase of Bell's trial.

"The case of Eddie Bell is not one which possesses the certainty and integrity to justify the imposition of the ultimate penalty. Confidence in the justice system requires that both sides in a trial advocate for their side, but here the adversary system broke down," his lawyers wrote.

They contend that Bell's IQ was measured at 68 and that he functions at an intellectual level below 95 percent of the population.

His lawyers also told Kaine that no court ever heard new evidence that cast doubt on Bell's guilt or that he was mentally disabled and, therefore, ineligible for the death penalty. The U.S. Supreme Court has banned the execution of people who are mentally disabled.

Since taking office, Kaine has allowed nine executions to be carried out and commuted one death sentence. He briefly stayed Bell's execution last year while the U.S. Supreme Court took up the legality of lethal injection.

Traylor said Bell spent part of yesterday visiting with immediate family members. He did not order a special meal, Traylor said.

Contact Frank Green at (804) 649-6340 or .