California Supreme Court blocks execution of Brown [Updated]

The California Supreme Court on Wednesday blocked what would be California's first execution in five years.

[Updated at 2:25 p.m.: The high court said a separate challenge of the state's protocol for lethal injection remains pending, and the state cannot proceed until that is resolved. That challenge was brought by other death row inmates in Marin County Superior Court.]

The ruling is the latest twist in a legal showdown over whether Albert Greenwood Brown will be executed Thursday at 9 p.m.

On Tuesday, a federal judge said there was "no way" that court could conduct an adequate review of California's new lethal-injection procedures before the death sentence was to be carried out.

U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel in effect reversed his Friday decision that the execution could go forward if the state gave Brown the option of dying by a single-injection method used in other states, rather than the three-drug cocktail prescribed by California's new regulations.

Time has become a crucial factor in whether Brown will be put to death this year.

The attorney general's office has said that the state's supply of a key drug that renders condemned prisoners unconscious will expire on Friday, and that further executions would have to wait until at least next year, when new supplies are expected.

Brown was convicted of raping and killing a 15-year-old Riverside girl in 1980.

-- Maura Dolan in San Francisco

Photo: Albert Greenwood Brown. Credit: Riverside County Sheriff's Department

Comments

[Mark Shapiro]

I hear they are feeding the death row inmates prime rib..their own tv,,,visits from girlfriends and wives,,free magazines and newspapers,,basketball and football leagues and also getting stipend per month. Pretty enticing to go out and commit a crime plus no rent or bills and free clothes.

[Jones]

1980??? That is 30 years of California paying legal bills on this guy. 30 years of the victims family being tortured having to follow these outlandish legal proceedings. Time to abolish the death penalty in this state and go with life WITHOUT the possibility of parole. Lock him away and after sentencing and the first year of appeals, you'll never hear about these scumbags again. Most people think that it's cheaper to kill than incarcerate for life. Wrong. Try nine times more expensive and for what measurable benefit. I don't remember the crime at all cause I was only ten years old (five years younger than the victim). I'm now 40. My parents both died years ago. I wonder if her parents outlived this condemned killer? p.s., I'm an unapologetic republican who supports the death penalty in Texas but not in this ridiculous liberal state.

[scan]

I wonder if Greenwood gave his 15 year old victim an option when he killed her.

[Disgusted]

This is DISGUSTING! He's a waste of space!
That poor girl and her family being denied justice is appalling!

[Evad the Slayer]

Oooooo. guess we have to make sure the bum doesn't suffer anything while being EXECUTED!
So, how come anyone can be put completely out by modern anesthesia, yet we can't manage to apply the same drugs to dirt like this guy? Need a firing squad.

[Evad the Slayer]

I am sick thinking of how long my tax dollars have fed this piece of dirt. Kill him already.

[ERRN]

Boy the headline writers are having fun, aren't they. I'll bet Jerry's campaign team were wishing the guy's name was Whitman...

[LOU]

Typical Jerry Brown.

[Cosmo Kramer]

Justice delayed is justice denied!! I am furious.

The Supreme Court should be made to explain their actions to the Mother and family of the victim.

It is actions like these that destroy people's faith in the system.

Pathetic.

[ROBERTA JORDAN]

WHAT AN ABSOLUTE OUTRAGE!