A bunch of other bloggers including BVBL and Scott White have already posted this, but the impact of it is so devastating that it bears repeating as much as possible.
In 2005, Jerry Kilgore ran a series of ads targeting Tim Kaine's opposition to the death penalty and warning Virginia voters that he could not be trusted to uphold the laws of the Commonwealth.
Democrats claimed that these ads were exaggerated and sensationalistic. Kilgore claimed they accurately represented Kaine's views. Kaine even went so far as to compare his oath of office to his wedding vows in claiming that he would do nothing less than uphold the laws of the Commonwealth when it came to death penalty and would not attempt to override the decisions of Virginia's juries.
Well, it turns out that Jerry Kilgore was right after all. You may recall that one of Kilgore's ads featured the widow of Winchester Police Sergeant Rick Timbrook saying she did not trust Tim Kaine to impose the death penalty on the cold-blodded killer who took the life of her husband.
Unfortunately, on Tuesday, Kelly Timbrook's fears were realized when Tim Kaine delayed the execution of Sgt. Timbrook's murderer, Edward Bell.
I urge you to go here and re-watch the ad. It is simply chilling and perhaps the strongest condemnation of the Governor's dishonest and disheartening actions that can be delivered. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Timbrook family and all other families throughout our Commonwealth who must now wait and wonder if justice will ever be served.
I'm curious how a 60 day
I'm curious how a 60 day stay so that his appeal before the Supreme Court can be heard equates to being dishonest. He hasn't commuted the sentence just put a 'hold' on the process until some serious questions before the courts are resolved. Would it have been better to let the process run to the last minute, drag the families to the prison, and then send them home when the Supreme Court grants a stay? Would you voice your outrage about Chief Justice Roberts at that point?
seriously, what Alex said.
seriously, what Alex said. this is the mother of all overreactions. the SCOTUS has made plain that it's not allowing lethal-injection executions until it decides the pending case from KY. surely you can wait an extra couple of months before the state kills a man in your and my name, (whether or not we like it)? the toothy bloodlust of some capital-punishment partisans never fails to amaze me.
Time for a retraction...
So, the Supreme Court has ruled. Lethal injection is ok. Gov Kaine started the clocks ticking again. Time to show you ideals instead of just trying to make a point.
What has changed?
I fail to see how Kaine's lifting of the moratorium calls for any type of retraction. The fact is that Kaine waited until the most politically advantageous time possible before he imposed the moratorium. He could have done so last September when the Court took up the lethal injection case. He did not because he knew that he would be savaged for it after his promises during the '05 campaign. Instead he waited until just before Bell's scheduled execution and used that case as the pretext to impose a blanket (albeit temporary) moratorium. There was little reason for Gov. Kaine to preempt the Supreme Court on the Bell case and even less reason to impose a blanket moratorium except to make a political point. The bottom line is that Kaine once again did what he swore he would not do and the necessity of his action today doesn't change that.
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