An inmate declared his innocence Thursday after he was forcibly carried into Virginia's death chamber, where he was executed for gunning down a police officer. Edward Nathaniel Bell, who was convicted of killing the officer during a foot chase a decade ago, was pronounced dead at 9:11 p.m. Thursday at the Greensville Correctional Center.
When the door between Bell's cell and the death chamber opened, the inmate thrust his hips backward and wouldn't step toward to the gurney where the lethal injection was administered. Six stocky corrections officers pulled him through the doorway and lifted him onto the gurney.
"To the Timbrook family, you definitely have the wrong person," Bell said in the death chamber, addressing the victim's family. "The truth will come out one day. This here, killing me, there's no justice about it."
Bell's lawyer, who also witnessed the execution, said a sedative the inmate was given made it difficult for him to walk. "Eddie's case is an example of how the system does not catch and correct errors," said attorney James G. Connell III.
Bell, 43, was condemned for shooting Winchester police Sgt. Ricky Timbrook as the officer chased him down a dark alley on Oct. 29, 1999. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine denied Bell's request for clemency earlier Thursday.
At least 10 current and former Winchester police officers witnessed the execution, including Winchester Sheriff Lenny Millholland. "I can't say it's closure but it's another chapter in the life of Ricky Timbrook and it ends the chapter that included Eddy Bell," said the sheriff, who was on the police force in 1999 and investigated Timbrook's death.
Bell maintained that he did not shoot Timbrook, a 32-year-old popular police officer, SWAT Team Member and DARE instructor. Prosecutors, however, say Bell was a flashy drug dealer who held a grudge against Timbrook for arresting him two years earlier for possessing a concealed weapon.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/21/2009 00:00 ||
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#4
WHoa, a death row inmate declares his innocence at the end...to do so otherwise would be impossible after decades of conditioning of the accused by defense attorney saying, "Hey, son we know you didn't do it, so let's provide it". After a while the inmate believes it....it's always someone elses fault; i.e., bad witnesses, cop, parents or a Twinkie.
#5
HL Mencken wrote of how a black death row inmate was prepared to be hung with the help of a black preacher who assured him that he would become a white angel in heaven.
In a great irony, some of the black preachers of the time were immensely popular because of their dramatic descriptions of Hell. The best of them would have their congregations feeling the lick of the flames and smelling brimstone wafting up from underneath the floorboards.
#6
The legal system is not interested in justice, but in winning legal contests. The attitude is 'if he's not guilty of THIS, he's guilty of something else, so execute him anyway.' It's probably largely true, but still not justice. And it would not surprise me if Eddie was the wrong guy in this case.
#7
It would surprise me, Glenmore - if ultra-liberal anti-death-penalty Governor Kaine (who never met a death row inmate he didn't "feel" for) wouldn't stay the execution, I'm betting he's extremely guilty, and the Commonwealth had the proof of it.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/21/2009 22:15 Comments ||
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Some community activists could face criminal charges after breaking into a home in Southeast Baltimore.
Police were at the home Thursday night looking for fingerprints and other evidence.
The activists who staged the break-in belong to the Association of Community Organizations For Reform Now or ACORN. After snapping a lock with bolt cutters, ACORN member Louis Beverly told supporters "this is our house now."
ACORN staged the demonstration to protest the foreclosure crisis sweeping the nation. The home in the 300 block of Ellwood Avenue used to be owned by Donna Hanks. She lost this home in September, after owning it since 2001. When things got tough she struggled to make her payments.
Her mortgage? $1995 a month. Her income? $2200. So the mortgage payment was 91% of her monthly income? Boy howdy, no reason at all why she got foreclosed, huh ...
Donna's story is one that ACORN is taking a stand against. "We feel that it was unjust, we feel as though she was strong armed robbed, we feel that Wells Fargo could have modified her loan and that is what we are asking for right now," says Beverly.
Acorn chapters across the country are staging similar scenes to drive their point home. They want state governments to enact moratoriums on foreclosures until this crisis can be worked out. ACORN says that they will move Donna Hanks back in despite the fact that she no longer owns the house.
During the taping of this story a man by the name of William Lane told ABC2 News that he owns the house currently--and plans to sue Acorn.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/21/2009 00:00 ||
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#5
Besoeker: Are we sure that's ZimBob's wife? She looks like Michele Oblahblah -- I'd recognize that scowl anywhere -- and who's the dude in the turban next to her?
Posted by: regular joe ||
02/21/2009 16:51 Comments ||
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#6
Nuttier than squirrel crap, they are, they are....
#9
So what part of "it's not yours until you've finished paying for it" do they not understand? Maybe Acorn could finance it and she could make payments to them.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/21/2009 18:18 Comments ||
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#10
The part where they have to pay for things they want, Deacon.
They don't understand that at all. But that's okay - Obama's gonna pay their mortgage and Obaman's gonna pay their gas.
Thought you might be interested in some REAL information related to this Baltimore foreclosure; Donna Hanks initially purchased her home (315 South Ellwood, Baltimore, MD 21224) on 7/06/2001 for $87,000. At some date between 2001 and 2006 she re-financed the original mortgage for the amount of $270,000 with a mortgage payment of $1,662.00. The FIRST foreclosure on this home was filed 5/31/2006. Donna Hanks filed for bankruptcy 6/16/06 during which a payment plan was approved for the $10,500 she was behind in her payments. This action stopped the original foreclosure. When she did not meet the terms of the bankruptcy re-payment, a second foreclosure action was started in January 2008. At the time she had not made her mortgage payments since September 2007. It should be noted that her salary per the bankruptcy paperwork was $1625 per month and she was working a 2nd and 3rd job (supposedly giving her an additional $1,275 in monthly income - the employers were not listed). Over extended? Also, during 2007 she was renting our her basement illegally (she was taken to court) and receiving rent while she was not making her mortgage payments. The mortgage company raised her payment $300 a month - right? Well, not exactly it was $340. The amount that she had agreed to pay back in arrears. Not exactly truthful, but what I would expect from a person with her criminal record (theft and assault 2nd degree and possession of a dangerous weapon with intent to injure). Oh and there is the small matter of breaking and entering. The house at 315 South Ellwood had already been sold at auction on 6/26/08 for $192,000. It just took them until September 2008 to get her out. Nothing like public information - it seems Acorn could have found this same information before they helped this poor victimized woman
#2
Arrested adolescent development is not pretty. However, when colleges have become nothing more than old fashion paper mills rather than institutions of higher learning the allegory is fitting.
Mumbai: Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone terrorist caught in the 26/11 attacks, is one of the most expensive prisoners in India. According to the report, the government has released over Rs 50 lakh for the security of Kasab, who is facing life threat from underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and Lashkar-e-Taiba.
After carrying out deadliest attack on Mumbai, which damaged properties worth in crores, the militant is consuming more Indian currency during this recession period.
Following several intelligence input regarding life threat to Kasab, the only witness India have to expose Pakistan's hand in Mumbai attacks before international community, the government has spent Rs 50 lakh on his security.
Kasab has been kept in 15/15 room at Arthur Road jail with grenade proof facilities. The Pakistani militant's room has no window and ceiling and floor were covered with special tensile steel to prevent grenade attack. Bunkers have also been made around his cell to prevent any missile attack following threat from Lashkar-e-Taiba, who has deployed one of its commander to kill him. The Pakistan-based militant outfit has launch 'Kill Kasab Mission'
Several CCTV cameras have been installed around his cell to monitor all activities.
Posted by: john frum ||
02/21/2009 10:27 ||
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#3
Woozle, India needs to keep him alive so they can drain him of any useful information about his Pakistani handlers.
After that, like you said, accidents happen.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
02/21/2009 15:25 Comments ||
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#4
'Shot while trying to escape' is something every Pak would understand.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/21/2009 18:15 Comments ||
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In a dramatic shootout in broad daylight at a court in Uttar Pradesh, five people were killed, including two undertrials and three gunmen. It lasted all of 15 minutes, starting at 12: 15 PM on Saturday afternoon and ending at 12: 30 PM.
Two men were on trial for murder and rape. They were being escorted out of the court by two policemen, a constable and a sub-inspector. Just as they came out of the building, three gunmen, lying in wait for them, opened fire, killing the two under-trials on the spot. The assailants then fled.
The Sub-Inspector who had brought the undertrials to court chased the three men and shot them in the encounter that followed.
Good shooting inspector!
"The station in-charge was there to give evidence shot at the assailants who fired at him in which three of them were killed. Four country made pistols have been recovered from them. The assailants have not been identified as of now but the process is on," Additional DGP (Law and Order), UP Brij Lal said in Lucknow.
Meanwhile, in another incident in Mathura, an undertrial booked in a case of attempt to murder was whisked away by armed men on a motorbike. There was an exchange of fire between policemen and the armed men but they managed to escape taking the undertrial with them.
Posted by: john frum ||
02/21/2009 09:53 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
