San Francisco: California Governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger has delayed by nearly two days an execution
that had been scheduled for Wednesday.
The delay means Albert Greenwood Brown is now scheduled
to die by lethal injection at 9 pm (local time) on Thursday,
Corrections Department spokeswoman Terry Thornton said.
Brown initially was scheduled for execution at 12:01 am
Wednesday.
Thornton said the governor told corrections officials the
delay would allow appeals courts time to weigh in on Brown's
case and give him time to consider a clemency request.
Brown's attorneys have filed simultaneous appeals to the
federal courts and state courts, seeking to block his
execution on the grounds the state improperly adopted its new
lethal injection procedures.
The delay was imposed by Schwarzenegger just hours after
Marin County Superior Court Judge Verna Adams refused to block
Brown's execution after he argued in a lawsuit that
California's new death penalty regulations were improperly
adopted.
"Mr Brown cannot prove that he will suffer pain if he is
executed under the current regulations," Adams said.
A federal judge ruled similarly on Friday after Brown
contended California's lethal injection process put him at
risk of suffering cruel and unusual punishment.
Brown was convicted of abducting, raping and killing a
15-year-old girl on her way home from school in 1980.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, September 28, 2010, 11:14