Murdered wifes letter re: Tim Kaine for Gov.
Dear Friend,
This is a difficult letter for me to write. My name is Kelly Timbrook. Rick Timbrook was my husband, my best friend. Rick was a police sergeant at the Winchester police department.
I met him as he was going through the police academy. As a kid, all Rick wanted to do was be a police officer. He believed in justice and our system and he loved everything about it.
On October 30, 1999, Rick was killed in Winchester, Virginia. He was murdered. He was shot in the head a few inches from his face. My husband's murder was Edward Bell and was in the country illegally.
I found out my husband was killed when I was seven months pregnant. I was sleeping and it was about 2:00 A.M. when a dispatcher called my house. He asked me to answer the door because someone from the police department was waiting for me. I was frightened, but simply never imagined that my husband could be dead. I never believed that could happen. I got a knock on my door and police personnel sat down with me and told me that my Rick had been killed.
When they told me, I fell to my knees screaming, "No!" I didn't think it was possible. I kept saying, "Why would he leave me, why would he leave me?"
I decided to go to the hospital because I wanted to say goodbye. There was blood on his face and tubes coming out everywhere. I had only a few moments with Rick, then a hospital worker handed me his ring and his watch and took my husband away.
Seven weeks later our son was born, right before Christmas. Today he's almost 6. He looks just like his father.
About a year after Rick died, his killer was tried and sentenced to death. The same month the judge gave the final ruling that the death penalty would be upheld, Tim Kaine, then a candidate for Lt. Governor, called for a halt to the death penalty.
I can't adequately explain how frustrated and demoralized this made me. My family just went through a trial for an entire year waiting for justice to be served; now we feel that it may soon be wrenched from us.
The fact that one man has power to undo what our law states is the penalty for the crime, and then reverse a jury's decision is frightening to me and my family. As Governor, Tim Kaine would have this power.
I've recently learned that Tim Kaine has spent much of his adult life trying to abolish the death penalty, calling it an "injustice." As a lawyer, he's volunteered to defend death-row murderers -- attempting to get their sentences overturned.
I've met family members of the victims of Tim Kaine's death-row clients. They share my grave concern about Tim Kaine having th epower as Governor to overturn these sentences.
With his lifetime record of opposing the death penalty as evidence, I'm extremely concerned that Tim Kaine will overturn the death penalty for my husband's murderer.
I have explained to my son that a bad man hurt his father. He wanted to know of course -- natural curiousity -- where his daddy was. He wanted to know where teh man who hurt his daddy lived, what his name was, and what he looked like. He is afraid that one day this bad man will come get him.
If Edward Bell's sentence is overturned by Tim Kaine, I don't know how I would ever explain this to my little boy. How can it be justice when a man can kill someone in cold blood who was doing his job to protect the rest of us, and then the murdererer is not sentenced to death?
How will I ever explain that to a little boy?
The Governor of Virginia has complete and total authority to overturn death-sentences and grant pardons. I owe it to my husband to stand up and support a man who believes in justice - Jerry Kilgore.
As a Federal Prosecutor and Virginia's Secretary of Public Safety, there is no question about where Jerry Kilgore stands - he supports the death penalty. If Jerry Kilgore is elected governor, he will make certain that justice is served so that closure can finally come to families like mine.
I hope and pray that our next governor will be a man who supports justice for the victims, not just the criminals.
Sincerely,
Kelly Timbrook
P.S. My life changed forever when my husband was murdered. All I'm asking for is closure and justice. I just don't trust Tim Kaine to carry out the death sentence on my husband's murderer.
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