Washington Supreme Court Postpones Execution of Convicted Rapist, Murderer
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The Washington state Supreme Court has postponed what would have been the first execution in the state since 2001.
The court ruled 5-4 on Thursday to grant a last-minute reprieve to 50-year-old Cal Coburn Brown for the May 1991 rape and murder of a 22-year-old Burien woman, Holly Washa.
Brown was scheduled to die by lethal injection early Friday morning at the Washington State Penitentiary.
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Brown's case goes back to Thurston County Superior Court, where another Washington death row inmate was recently granted a May hearing on the validity of the lethal injection procedure. Brown's lawyers contended that it would be wrong to execute Brown even as Stenson won a delay by raising the same points.