BARRING a last-minute reprieve, Jamaican-born Edward Bell will be executed in Virginia, USA at 9:00 tonight for the 1999 gun murder of a police officer.
Bell, 42, has been on death row for seven years after exhausting all avenues of appeal in the United States justice system.
Bell, a native of Portland in eastern Jamaica, was found guilty of murder of police sergeant Ricky Timbrook, who was chasing him in a dark alley on the night of October 29, 1999 in the city of Winchester. The cop was shot once in the face with a .38 revolver. He died on the spot.
After an eight-hour search, Bell was found hiding in the basement of a house not far from where Timbrook was killed. Hours later, cops found the gun used in the crime hidden under a pile of bricks at the same premises.
Bell's fingerprints were found on the weapon and ballistic tests later found gunshot residue on his hands.
Under Virginia law, the murder of a law enforcement officer is punishable by death and Bell, who has maintained his innocence, can only be spared if Governor Timothy Kaine grants him clemency and reduces his sentence to life.