Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia stayed the upcom­ing exe­cu­tion of Edward Bell, sched­uled for April 8, 2008. In so doing, the gov­er­nor issued a state­ment stay­ing oth­er exe­cu­tions and not­ing the U.S. Supreme Court’s con­sid­er­a­tion of the lethal injec­tion issue (Baze v. Rees). The state­ment also remarked on the dis­rup­tion that the set­ting of an exe­cu­tion date can cause:

In order to await the Supreme Court’s rul­ing in Baze, and respect­ing the nation­al legal con­sen­sus that no exe­cu­tion go for­ward until that time, I grant a tem­po­rary reprieve of the exe­cu­tion date for Edward Nathaniel Bell, cur­rent­ly sched­uled for April 8, until July 24, 2008. This tem­po­rary reprieve will allow for issuance of the Supreme Court deci­sion and con­sid­er­a­tion of whether its out­come has any effect upon the mer­its of Mr. Bell’s legal claims or request for clemency.

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 order to pro­vide guid­ance to courts, lit­i­gants and the pub­lic, it is my inten­tion, for the rea­sons expressed here, to grant a tem­po­rary delay of any exe­cu­tion date in Virginia that has been set after the con­clu­sion of fed­er­al habeas cor­pus review and that is sched­uled to occur before the Baze deci­sion is ren­dered, unless the Supreme Court, by oth­er rul­ing or action, spec­i­fies that exe­cu­tions may com­mence once again.

(Statement of Gov. Kaine, April 1, 2008). See Lethal Injection.

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