BARRING a last-minute reprieve, Jamaican-born Edward Bell will be executed in Virginia, USA at 9:00 tomorrow night 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.

Kaine last year lifted a temporary moratorium on the Virginia death penalty, but has not responded to a European Union appeal to save Bell’s life on humanitarian grounds.

Bell has fought hard to stave off the death penalty but his case has been thrown out by the Supreme Court of Virginia, the Federal District Court and the US Supreme Court.

Prosecutors in the case argued that Bell had a history of violence and was previously arrested and charged for illegal firearm and ammunition offences, according to US media reports.

The prosecutors, the reports said, pointed to Bell’s arrest for malicious destruction of property and malicious wounding in Port Antonio, Portland in January 1985 as proof that he had a history of violence.

In that incident Bell was found guilty of stabbing a man and injuring him with a knife during a dispute, and was sentenced to 10 days or pay a $40-fine for unlawful wounding and 10 days or $50 for malicious wounding in the Port Antonio Resident Magistrate’s Court. At that time the rate of exchange was J$5.50 to US$1.00.

Meanwhile, police in the United States testified that Bell attempted to escape state troopers and resisted arrest after he was pulled over for a routine speeding violation.

Authorities used helicopters and police dogs to find Bell and charge him with fleeing an arrest, driving without a licence and speeding.

Also, one of Bell’s former girlfriends said he held a gun to her head, beat her head against his car and sexually assaulted her during a 1997 argument in the middle of a public street.

At least four witnesses also said they knew Bell as a drug dealer of crack cocaine.

Executions in Virginia are carried out by lethal injection at the Greensville Correctional Centre.