Albert Greenwood Brown,  Death Penalty

U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Orders a New Hearing for Albert Greenwood Brown

Albert Greenwood Brown, the next to die under California Death Penalty law?

Late Monday a federal appeals court has apparently stayed the planned execution of Albert Greenwood Brown who is scheduled to die at 9 PM Thursday.

A federal appeals court in San Francisco late Monday ordered a trial judge to reconsider a ruling that allowed for a convicted murderer and rapist to be executed this week at San Quentin State Prison.

Albert Greenwood Brown was scheduled to die at 9 p.m. Thursday for the 1980 killing of a 15-year-old Riverside girl.

But the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel erred by offering Brown a choice of a one-drug lethal injection or a three-drug cocktail.

“The district court’s decision to provide Brown the choice of a one-drug option is not consistent with California state law and procedures. California law does not provide the condemned a choice between a three-drug protocol or a one-drug option,” the ruling said.

The appeals court ordered the judge to schedule a new hearing.

The court’s order came hours after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered a one-day delay in Brown’s execution, citing a procedural complication in the state’s attempt to carry out its first death sentence in nearly five years.

The governor’s reprieve coincided with an announcement by the attorney general’s office that further lethal-injection sentences in California would have to wait until at least next year due to a nationwide shortage of the key drug used to render condemned prisoners unconscious.

And, now there is another impediment to California executions – the availability of the drug, sodium thiopental. How cute and convenient.

Jerry Brown, the California Attorney General who is personally opposed to the death penalty and who appointed the later recalled Rose Bird as Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court who let a number of infamous criminals live when her court ruled the death penalty unconstitutional decades ago is now entrusted with enforcing the death penalty law.

Good luck with the California death penalty law being enforced with Jerry Brown as Attorney General. If Brown is elected governor in November, look for more anti-death penalty Supreme Court Justices to be appointed, as well.

Also, note the company who makes sodium thiopental is having some difficulty with its product being used for legal executions.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation “has been unable to secure sodium thiopental to perform any executions after Sept. 30,” said attorney general spokeswoman Christine Gasparac. “This office will recommend that future executions be scheduled when [the corrections department] expects the drug to be available.”

The drug manufacturer, Hospira Inc. of Lake Forest, Ill., blamed the shortage on a third-party supplier’s failure to provide the crucial pharmaceutical ingredient for its pentothal product. The company said it expected to have more available in the first quarter of 2011. But a spokesman also reiterated the company’s objections to their product being used in executions.

“Hospira manufactures this product because it improves or saves lives, and the company markets it solely for use as indicated on the product labeling. The drug is not indicated for capital punishment, and Hospira does not support its use in this procedure,” said spokesman Daniel Rosenberg, adding that the company informed corrections departments of its position earlier this year.

Death penalty opponents cannot change California law so they subvert the legal process to get their way.

What a travesty of justice.

There will not be any executions in California now until at least the first quarter of next year – if then.

Previous:

Albert Greenwood Brown’s Execution Delayed by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger

U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel Clears Path for California Executions to Resume – But Will They?

California Executions to Resume? Albert Greenwood Brown Would Be Next

California Executions May Resume By the End of 2008

Michael Morales Watch: US Supreme Court Upholds Lethal Injection Executions

Michael Morales Watch: Lethal Injection Hearings Delayed Again

Michael Angelo Morales Watch: California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Halts Construction of San Quentin Death Chamber

Michael Angelo Morales Watch: New San Quentin Death Chamber Under Construction

Michael Angelo Morales Watch: California Governor Schwarzenegger Proposes Revised 5-Point Lethal Injection Protocol

Michael Morales Watch: Judge
Jeremy Fogel Rules – California Method of Lethal Injection Violates a
Constitutional Ban on Cruel and Unusual Punishment

Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Execution Postponed INDEFINITELY

Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Execution Tonight?

Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Execution Delayed by Doctor Walk Out

Michael Angelo Morales Watch: United States Supreme Court Refuses to Halt Morales Execution

Michael Angelo Morales Watch: California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Denies Clemency Petition

Michael Angelo Moreno Watch: State Agrees to Place Anesthesia Expert in Death Chamber

Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Lawyers Withdraw Allegedly Faked Juror Statements Supporting Their Clemency Bid

Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Federal Judge May Delay Execution

Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Ventura County Judge Asks California Governor Schwarzenegger for Clemency

Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Kenneth Starr to Assist Death Row Clemency Bid