Supreme Court halts Brown execution

OLYMPIA — The state Supreme Court has stayed the execution of Cal Coburn Brown less than eight hours before he was scheduled to be executed for the 1991 slaying of a Burien woman.

The high court, which has twice before denied Brown's requests for clemency, based the 5-4 decision on an issue pending before Thurston County Superior Court — lethal injection.

On Wednesday, Thurston County Superior Court Judge Chris Wickham agreed to hear arguments over whether lethal injection constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in two other death penalty cases, but not in Brown's case. Wickham will hear testimony on the issue in May.

Shortly before 4:30 p.m., the Supreme Court granted Brown's motion for discretionary review, less than an hour after the state Clemency and Pardons Board was split 2-2- in ruling on whether Brown, 50, should be executed at 12:01 a.m. Friday, as scheduled. The board's decision was then forwarded to Gov. Chris Gregoire.

Suzanne Elliott, one of Brown's defense lawyers, argued before the clemency board that her client should be granted a reprieve until the matter is heard in Thurston County.

"I am so gratified that the Washington State Supreme Court granted a stay of execution. I think they have done the right thing," Elliott said after the Supreme Court's decision was announced. "I am very glad all of these issues will be fully heard by the court before anyone takes the ultimate action against my client."

Gregoire's spokesman, Pearce Edwards, said that the governor cannot overrule the Supreme Court's decision.

"There's not going to be a formal execution, that's what this means," Edwards said.

Defense lawyers argue that the drugs that the state Department of Corrections administers for lethal injection could result in excruciating pain, constituting cruel and unusual punishment. There are also concerns that the drugs are not administered by a physician or a nurse anesthesiologist

King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg was already in Walla Walla for Brown's execution when he learned that the stay had been issued. Two senior deputy prosecutors argued in support of the execution before the clemency board in Olympia.

Brown carjacked Holly Washa, 22, at knife point near Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in 1991 and held her captive for 34 hours at a motel. The Burien woman was raped, robbed, tortured and slashed to death. Her body was left in her car's trunk.

Brown also spoke to the clemency board by phone from the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla.

"I cannot begin to say how sorry and ashamed I am for what I did," Brown said. "She haunts me to this day. There has not been a day I have not felt horrible."

Brown and Elliott testified that Brown is mentally ill. Brown said that he killed Washa at a time when he was "in a very dark place."

Washa's father, brother and two sisters also spoke to the board by phone. The Nebraska family had recently arrived in Walla Walla after a long drive from their homes. "She was a good girl," said John Washa Jr., the slain woman's father. "He has no remorse."

The family has long lobbied for the death penalty in the case.

At the conclusion of the nearly four-hour clemency board's emergency hearing at the Capitol campus, Chairwoman Margaret Smith and board member Amanda Lee opposed the execution.

Lee said she was concerned that two other death-row inmates, Darold Stenson and Jonathan Gentry, would have their lethal injection concerns addressed before they were executed, but Brown would not.

The remaining board members at the hearing, Snohomish Police Chief John Turner and Cheryl Terry, a citizen, opposed a stay or any type of reprieve out of concern for the Washa family.

"How much more do you have to drag this family through?" Terry said. "Fifteen years is enough."

Jennifer Sullivan: 360-236-8267 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com