RICHMOND – Virginia will resume implementation of the death penalty following today's U.S. Supreme Court ruling that upholds the constitutionality of lethal injection.

Gov. Tim Kaine announced April 1 that he would halt executions in Virginia until the court issued its ruling in a case challenging Kentucky's method of lethal injection. No executions have been carried out in the U.S. since the court agreed last fall to hear the case of Baze v. Rees. Today's ruling effectively ends the moratorium Kaine imposed two weeks ago, a spokesman said.

"In light of the Supreme Court ruling, executions will move forward according to the procedures that were in place prior to the Court's agreement to hear Baze last September," Kaine spokesman Gordon Hickey said in a written statement. "The governor will continue to review any clemency requests on a case-by-case basis."

Kaine earlier this month delayed the scheduled April 8 execution of Edward Nathaniel Bell, who was convicted of capital murder for the 1999 killing of a Winchester police officer. The execution is now set for July 24.

In October, the Supreme Court stayed Virginia's scheduled execution of Christopher Scott Emmett, before Kaine could intervene in the case.

Attorney General Bob McDonnell objected to Kaine's decision to postpone the Bell execution, calling it "premature." Some state lawmakers also criticized Kaine, whose opposition to the death penalty has been a source of controversy throughout his statewide political career. McDonnell issued a statement this afternoon saying Kaine "has rightly lifted his moratorium on executions in Virginia."

Bell is on death row for the shooting death of Winchester police Sgt. Rick Timbrook. Timbrook's widow appeared in a 2005 campaign ad for Republican gubernatorial candidate Jerry Kilgore, who criticized Kaine for his views on the death penalty.