Mississippi Won't Carry-Out Year-End Execution

The Mississippi Supreme Court has yet to rule on Attorney General Jim Hood’s motion to set an execution date of December 29, 2010 for Frederick Bell. Hood’s motion came after the U.S. Supreme Court on Nov. 29 declined to hear an appeal from Bell.

It appears unlikely that the execution will occur this year. The leaves 46 executions carried out nationwide for 2010. That is 6 fewer executions than were carried out in 2009.

In 2010, only seven states — Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas and Virginia — executed more than one prisoner, the report finds. Of those seven states, Texas was far and away the most active, executing 17 inmates in 2010, compared with eight for Ohio, the second-busiest state. Alabama was third with five executions, according to Stateline.com.

Bell and Anthony Joe Doss were convicted of killing Bert Bell, no relation, on May 6, 1991, during an armed robbery of Sparks Stop-N-Shop in Grenada County. Doss also was sentenced to death, according to the Associated Press.

Three Mississippi death row inmates were executed in 2010. Department of Correction records show the last time the state executed more than two inmates in one year was 1961, when five men were put to death. Paul Everette Woodward and Gerald James Holland were executed in May. Joseph Daniel Burns was executed in June.

To read more: http://picayuneitem.com/statenews/x636375796/Bell-execution-date-still-pending