Judge blocks California's first execution in five years

A federal judge Tuesday blocked the execution of convicted rapist and murderer Albert Greenwood Brown, saying there was “no way” the court could conduct an adequate review of California's new lethal-injection procedures before the death sentence was to be carried out Thursday.

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.

Earlier Tuesday, Fogel had asked attorneys to weigh in on the state’s new procedures for carrying out lethal injections, including how similar and different they are from the older rules that the judge had previously found to be flawed.

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.

-- Carol J. Williams

Photo: Albert Greenwood Brown. Credit: Los Angeles Times

Comments

[AAA]

whew I thought might actually be justice in this state

[seanny]

The judicial system is so corrupt, it can't even be trusted to conduct a fair execution> when the whole system is corrupt everything it conducts qualifies to be classified< "cruel and unusual punishment"

[Bonnie Wolve]

hE DOESN'T DESERVE ANOTHER BREATH OF AIR. That little girl didn't have a choice of how to die or if it would be inhumaine. If you have a problem giving him that injection move over because I sure don't! rotton no good so in so And televise it live on the air so we can all watch him die.

[MARK SHAPIRO]

MAN CAN TO GO MARS BUT CANT COME UP WITH THE DRUG TO DO THE EXECUTION..MABYE THE JUDGE IS THE GUYS BROTHER

[Joe]

I am sick this charade. Do the crime do your dying too. This coward did not give the girl a chance. Now he's getting all the breaks.

[Will]

Next step, abolish the death penalty.

[bob]

This piece of garbage gets to live another day while his victim has been dead for 30 years.

[Marky Mark]

OMG.... What ever happened to public hangings and the firing squad. Bullets work. What the hell has this state come to? Oh wait, its the "lets kill unborn babies" but lets show compassion for this dirtbag that raped and murdered a 15 yo girl while he was on the phone with her mom. And then we had to pay $50K or so for the last 30 years to keep this scumbag alive, and now they are arguing whether the needle will hurt him. Give me a frigging break.

[Former USC Professor]

Maybe that idiot of a judge should get a deck of Tarot Cards out and ask what the dead 15 year old girl thinks.

[Melissa Lee]

How disgusting that this man is still breathing...his victim..whom he showed no mercy would be 45 now! She lost her life and her family lost a piece of theirs. This dispicable evil creature actually called the victim's to tell her that she would never see her daughter alive again. Our wonderful judicial system shows how inept it is, that a man who did this, showed them where the body was, etc. is still alive and we're fighting over the humanity of putting him 'down' like I have with my beloved dog. What is wrong with our society?

[Cosmo Kramer]

It is through the actions of a judge like this that the death penalty is becomes a mockery of justice. They end up giving more rights to the killers than the victims will ever get again.

If you ask me, Jeremy Fogel should be in the death chamber with Brown and we should off the both of them! A jury of Brown's peers have given him the death sentence and it should be enforced!!!

Justice delayed is justice denied!!! Fogel should be removed from the bench!

[Paul Diaz]

All you judges and politicians are Cowards. This man not only raped and killed an innocent teen, but then had the gall to call her mother and taunt her.

You all ought to be ashamed of yourselves.

[S.A. Wright]

Where along the way did we lose sight of who is the victim and who is the bad guy? Do you think this (ALLEGED) Criminal gave that poor young girl an option of how he would have sex with her and then kill her? This world has gone absolutely upside down and the inmates are running the asylum!

[jeremy clifton]

what a joke thats why california is broke keep them all on death row and never kill the killers

[jeremy clifton]

how would that judge feel if it was his kid or someone's he knew shame on them

[Larry]

Isn't there another way to get rid of this d-bag?
This is shameful to California?

SHAMEFUL!

[j. c.]

idiot judge ,who cares if this animal suffers or not just execute him here ill pay for a damn bullet. american justice really sucks we keep voting this idiot incompetent judges in

[Mark]

Good. The government shouldn't have a right to murder us.

[Johnson]

A gun shot right between the eyes ought of do it.

[Will I Am]

So it's not a question of whether this man is to die or not, it's a question of whether his lawyers OK the new lethal injection procedures or not. Let me go out on a limb and predict the lawyers will not OK them. Do we put the needs of the condemned killer over common sense? Apparently, this judge does. Who gives a rat's behind how the inmante feels in his last moments? It's not like he's a productive member of society. In fact, the legal system, by condemning him to death, has declared that he is no longer fit to exist in our society. So why coddle him? Put him down, already!

[Hal Bass]

As heinous as Albert Greenwood Brown's crime was, there is nothing more heinous or barbaric in the 21st century than California or any other state taking someone's life. If we were to outdo even Texas and execute one inmate a week, it would take 14 years to clear out death row. I hope the next governor of California does what former Gov. George Ryan of Illinois did and commutes all of the death sentences to life imprisonment

[Say What]

Why the judge was not there to block the raping and killing of a 15-year-old Riverside girl in 1980

[HappyJack]

Geez give the people a break from the ever growing population of airheads in control.

[Our Country is doomed]

What awesome justice? 1980 are you kidding me. What a joke?

[Judy]

When are we going to stop caring more for the criminals than the victims and all this wrangling over legal issues. Did Brown care about whether or not these young girls wanted to be raped and murdered? Were they given a choice on how they were to die? No, the parents were told to pick up there kids like so much garbage he left lying around.