Washington prepares for first execution since 2001; Gov. Chris Gregoire will not commute Cal Brown's death sentence

Cal Coburn Brown

OLYMPIA – Gov. Chris Gregoire will not commute the sentence of Cal Brown for the torture, rape and murder of Holly Washa.

Brown is scheduled to be executed early Friday by lethal injection, barring action by the U.S. Supreme Court. The state Supreme Court denied a stay of execution by an 8-1 vote Wednesday.

Gregoire, who under the state Constitution has the authority to change a death sentence to life in prison without parole, said Wednesday afternoon she wouldn’t do that. After the Clemency and Pardons Board split 2-2 on whether to recommend commutation, she said she reviewed the case and “found no basis to reverse his conviction or change the death sentence imposed by the jury.”

There are no extenuating circumstances or flaws in the judicial process, she said. Although Brown, who is bipolar, has asked for a commutation based on the diagnosis of his mental disorder, the jury heard that evidence and took it into account, she added.

Brown confessed to the 1991 crimes, which occurred over a two-day period in a Sea-Tac Hotel. He was convicted in late 1993 and sentenced in early 1994.

In Spokane, death penalty opponents will gather for a nondenominational service and vigil tonight in opposition to the execution, the first in Washington state since 2001. The Peace and Justice Action League of Spokane, a sponsor of the protest, says studies have shown that capital punishment does not prevent crime, is racially discriminatory and costs more than life imprisonment.

The service begins at 7:30 p.m. at Salem Lutheran Church, 1428 W. Broadway Ave., and continues with a candlelight vigil at the Spokane County Courthouse, 1116 W. Broadway Ave., until confirmation of the execution.

Source: The Spokesman-Review, September 9, 2010

Brown asks the U.S. Supreme Court to stay his execution

Lawyers for condemned killer Cal Coburn Brown on Tuesday filed two petitions with the U.S. Supreme Court asking the high court to stay his execution.

Brown, 52, is scheduled to die by lethal injection sometime after midnight on Friday. Seattle attorney Gil Levy, who is on Brown's defense team, said Tuesday that they have filed a motion asking for a stay as well as a Petition for Writ of Certiorari, asking for a judicial review of lower court rulings that were not in Brown's favor.

King County Superior Court Judge Sharon Armstrong on Tuesday afternoon will also hear arguments in the case.

Last week, U.S. District Court Judge John Coughenour and a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied motions to block his execution.

Brown was convicted of the 1991 rape, torture and murder of Holly Washa, 21, whose body was found in the trunk of her car in a parking lot near Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Her throat had been slashed, and she had been tortured and raped repeatedly.

The last person to be executed in Washington state was James Elledge, 58, who died by lethal injection in August 2001 for the 1998 strangling and stabbing of Eloise Jane Fitzner, 47, at a Lynnwood church.

Source: The Seattle Times, September 7, 2010

Washington state prepares for first execution in nine years

Washington State Penitentiary
Execution chamber and gurney

WALLA WALLA -- In a state where executions are uncommon, Cal Coburn Brown's death on Friday will be the first time since 2001 that Washington has carried out its capital punishment.

Barring a last-minute stay of execution from the state or U.S. Supreme Court, the 52-year-old will become the first death row inmate in the state to die by a one-drug method of execution, a recently changed protocol from a three-drug cocktail.

Gov. Chris Gregoire today denied clemency for Brown, who had petitioned for his death sentence to be commuted to a life sentence. The governor said she found “no basis to change the death sentence that was imposed by the jury in accordance with the laws of our state.”

The state Supreme Court also denied a stay, though Brown’s attorneys immediately asked for an emergency stay and another review. An appeal challenging the qualifications of the state’s execution team is before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Washington is the second state in the nation, after Ohio, to change to the one-drug method.

Eighteen months ago, Brown, who was convicted in the 1991 murder of a Seattle-area woman, was just hours from a lethal injection when he received a stay of execution. The state Supreme Court granted the stay because another inmate had been granted a hearing on the constitutionality of the state's lethal injection policy.

Since then, Washington's execution method has changed, as has the four-member team assigned to carry out the injection. The previous team resigned, fearing its members might be identified after several inmates challenged the state's previous method and questioned the qualifications of the execution team.

The one-drug protocol is more simple, and the new team has the medical expertise needed to carry out the execution, said Dan Pacholke, acting director of the prisons division for the Department of Corrections.

"I don't have any reservations at all about our readiness or the competency of the folks who are going to handle the medical aspect of this procedure," he said. "It's the most severe criminal justice sanction that's handed down by the courts. It's supported by the state of Washington, and to ask state workers to carry out this task is significant. I don't think that weight is lost on anybody."

Brown confessed to the rape and murder of 22-year-old Holly Washa, of Burien, Wash., during an interrogation by California authorities over an alleged attack of a woman in that state. He surprised investigators with his reply to a routine question: Anything else you want to tell us?

Brown was near the airport in Seattle when he directed Washa to a problem with her car's rear tire. When Washa opened her door, he carjacked her at knifepoint, then robbed, raped and tortured Washa before killing her.

After confessing to California investigators, he directed police to Washa's battered body in the trunk of a car.

Prosecutors pointed to the case as one befitting the death penalty, while opponents argue for leniency because of his mental condition. 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.

During sentencing, Brown's defense attorneys argued the murder may have been the result of an untreated mental disorder.

Judith Kay, an ethics professor at the University of Puget Sound who corresponds with Washington's death row inmates, last visited Brown on Aug. 25. Kay said Brown has always taken full responsibility for his actions and is remorseful, but she questions why mental illness wasn't a mitigating factor in his sentence.

"When he's in the grip of this mental illness, it doesn't excuse what he did, and it doesn't diminish his responsibility, but should he have received a lesser sentence that would protect society and punish him but not take his life?" she asked.

King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg dismissed that argument. "He does not suffer from an extreme mental disturbance. He has been diagnosed with a fairly common mental health issue, but it does not excuse what he did," he said. "It does not explain, nor does it excuse, rape, torture, murder."

Brown's current attorneys did not respond to a request for comment. The Washa family declined to comment.

Brown, of San Jose, Calif., has a history of violent crime. He was convicted of assaults in California and Oregon, and served seven years in an Oregon prison. Brown was released on parole just two months before Washa's death and the alleged attack on the woman in California in 1991.

Since 1904, 77 men have been put to death in Washington.

Source: The Associated Press, September 8, 2010