Gov. Timothy M. Kaine granted a temporary reprieve to condemned killer Edward Nathaniel Bell yesterday, pending a challenge before the U.S. Supreme Court to the way lethal injections are conducted.

Kaine said he would also grant similar reprieves to any other inmates scheduled for execution before the high court rules on the death penalty method, expected by July, unless the justices otherwise allow executions to resume.

According to the Virginia Attorney General's Office, Kevin Green is scheduled to be executed on May 27 and Percy Walton on June 8. Also, an execution date might be set for death-row inmate Robert Yarbrough before July.

There have been no executions in the United States since Sept. 25, when the justices agreed to hear the lethal-injection challenge from Kentucky.

Bell, 42, murdered Sgt. Ricky Lee Timbrook, a Winchester police officer in 1999. Timbrook was shot in the head while pursuing Bell on foot. Bell's new execution date will be July 24.

Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell, the presumptive GOP nominee for governor, quickly disagreed yesterday with what he called Kaine's "decision to impose a blanket moratorium on all executions in Virginia."

In a prepared statement, McDonnell said, "While I recognize the clear authority of the governor to grant reprieves to death-row inmates, and understand the rationale for his decision today in Bell's case, that decision is premature."

He indicated Kaine should have waited for a court to act.

On Oct. 17, the U.S. Supreme Court stayed the execution of Christopher Scott Emmett in Virginia hours before it would have been carried out. Executions elsewhere have been delayed by the high court, lower state and federal courts or other governors.

In his own statement yesterday, Kaine said, "Stays in the final hours before an execution can take an emotional and physical toll on those who must prepare for the execution, including the family members of the victim or victims."

In Virginia, the condemned can choose between lethal injection and the electric chair. Since Jan. 1, 1995, when lethal injection became an option, 70 condemned men have selected injection and just a handful the electric chair.

According to the Virginia Department of Corrections, Bell did not make a choice. In that case, the default method of execution is injection. McDonnell said yesterday that an inmate could opt for the electric chair -- which is not under challenge.

Critics contend the way states conduct lethal injections could permit a prisoner to be conscious and suffer excruciating pain without being able to move, cry out or otherwise indicate he is awake.

The Attorney General's Office said that Virginia's procedures have been repeatedly upheld in the courts. Kaine personally opposes the death penalty but has agreed that Virginia's lethal-injection procedures do not violate the Constitution.

Richard Dieter, director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said 17 executions have been stayed in the U.S. since last September. In many other cases, he said, execution dates simply have not been set in anticipation of the court's ruling in the Kentucky case.

The Kentucky case was argued before the justices on Jan. 7. Dieter said a decision is expected before the end of June.
Contact Frank Green at (804) 649-6340 or fgreen@timesdispatch.com.