Wash. Supreme Court stays Brown execution

The state Supreme Court stayed the execution of Cal Coburn Brown on Thursday, just hours before he was to die for the murder of a 22-year-old woman.

Brown, 50, was scheduled to die by lethal injection early Friday morning at the Washington State Penitentiary at Walla Walla for the 1991 slaying of Holly Washa.

In a 5-4 ruling, the high court, led by Justice Charles Johnson, stayed the execution while Brown's case goes back to Thurston County Superior Court, where another Washington death row inmate, Darold Ray Stenson, was recently granted a May hearing on the constitutionality of Washington state's lethal injection policy.

Brown's lawyers contended that it would be wrong to execute Brown before the issue was settled by the court.

"I am incredibly grateful the Supreme Court has granted us this stay," said one of Brown's attorneys, Suzanne Elliott. "It was the right thing to do."

Joining Johnson in the majority were Justices Barbara Madsen, Richard Sanders, Tom Chambers and Debra Stephens.

Dissenting were Chief Justice Gerry Alexander, Justices Susan Owens, Mary Fairhurst and Jim Johnson.

King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg said he was extremely frustrated and called the development "cruel and unusual punishment to the victim's family."

Washa's relatives, including her siblings and her father, spent two days driving from Ogallala, Neb., to witness the execution, Satterberg said.

Seven friends and relatives of Washa, holding red roses and crying, gathered in the prison parking lot Thursday night.

"It's very disappointing to me," said Washa's father, John, a 65-year-old retired truck driver. "Hopefully this next time will be it. It will all be over."

The ruling came shortly after the conclusion of a three-hour hearing of the Washington State Clemency and Pardons Board. The board was split 2-2 on the question of whether Gov. Chris Gregoire should grant Brown's request for a temporary reprieve or clemency from his execution. Since the board serves only an advisory function, any final decision would have come down to Gregoire.

"I respect the decision of the Court in this deliberative process," Gregoire said in a statement issued after the court's decision.

"This ruling merely delays the execution of Cal Coburn Brown," Attorney General Rob McKenna said in a statement. "We believe the trial court will rule the state's lethal injection protocol is constitutional."

Brown was convicted of carjacking Washa at knifepoint near Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. He robbed, raped and tortured the young woman from the south Seattle suburb of Burien before stabbing and strangling her.

Washa's family called in to the clemency hearing to tell board members that they didn't want any more delays in Brown's execution.

"We are looking for closure," said Becky Washa, Holly Washa's youngest sister.

Brown also called in to the clemency hearing, expressing remorse for what he had done to Washa.

"She haunts me to this day," he told board members. "There hasn't been one day since that time that I haven't felt horrible about what I did."

Defense attorney Gilbert Levy, in Walla Walla, said that he had been prepared to spend what he thought were the final hours with his client.

Department of Corrections spokeswoman Belinda Stewart said that Brown had already selected pizza, soda with ice and apple pie as his last meal.

"This was an amazing thing," Levy said. "I'm in a state of shock."

Levy said he told Brown by phone about the stay.

"He was just elated," Levy said. "He feels deep remorse and regret for what he's done. He did a terrible, terrible thing. But he's somebody who wants to live."

Earlier in the week, the state Supreme Court had rejected Brown's arguments that the death penalty is applied irrationally in Washington and that he should not be executed because he suffers from a mental illness.

According to court documents, Brown suffers from bipolar disorder, but was not being treated at the time of the murder. Since 1994, prison staff have prescribed medication to control the condition.

Brown, whose death sentence was overturned by a federal appeals court in 2007 but later reinstated by the U.S. Supreme Court, confessed to Washa's torture and murder.

He had been out of an Oregon prison just two months for an attack seven years earlier.

Near the airport, Brown got Washa's attention by pointing to the rear tire of her vehicle, indicating a problem. When the young woman opened her car door to investigate, he jumped in and held her at knifepoint.

For the next 36 hours, Brown raped and tortured Washa in a motel room before killing her. Days later, arrested for attacking another woman in California, Brown directed police to Washa's body in the trunk of her car.

Since 1904, 77 men have been put to death in Washington state. Brown would be just the fifth inmate executed since 1963.

Brown was convicted of aggravated first-degree murder on Dec. 10, 1993, and sentenced to death 17 days later.

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Associated Press Writer Gene Johnson contributed to this report from Walla Walla.

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The case is Cal Coburn Brown v. Eldon Vail, Secretary of Department of Corrections, et al., docket number 82832-6.

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On the Net:

Supreme Court of Washington: http://www.courts.wa.gov

Office of Attorney General: http://www.atg.wa.gov

Washington Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty: http://www.abolishdeathpenalty.org