Riverside man convicted of 1980 murder scheduled for execution next week

A federal judge has cleared the way for California's first execution in almost five years - the first since California revised procedures for carrying out lethal injections. Albert Greenwood Brown of Riverside is set to be executed at San Quentin prison on Wednesday, for a murder committed 30 years ago.

Brown was sentenced to death nearly 30 years ago. He was convicted in 1982 of raping and strangling 15-year old Susan Jordan. The teenager was abducted on her way to Arlington high School in Riverside.

“And he pulled her off the bike path into the orange grove and stripped her clothes off, raped her and strangled her.” said Riverside County chief deputy district attorney Bill Mitchell. Then Brown tormented Jordan’s family with anonymous phone calls.

“He spoke to the mother, told her she would never see her daughter alive again and said he would call back later to tell her where they could find the body.” Mitchell remembers.

Police found Susan’s body. They also linked Albert Brown to the murder within days after witnesses identified his car at the crime scene. Some of the girl’s personal belongings were also found at his home.

Brown was convicted and sentenced to death less than 2 years later. He pleaded not guilty.

Brown finally exhausted his state and federal appeals 3 years ago. Riverside County chief deputy DA Bill Mitchell says there’s no compelling reason to further delay Brown’s execution.

“It was a horrendous crime, guilt is certain." Mitchell says "There is really no basis by which he should be afforded mercy. Justice in our opinion demands that his sentence imposed by the jury in 1982 should be given its effect despite the long delay that was occasioned by the appellate process.”:

But justice could be delayed. Brown has until 6pm Saturday to decide whether he wants to be put to death by a single drug, sodium thiopental. Or via the three-drug formula recently put into effect in California.

If Brown chooses the single-drug method, but the state decides it’s unprepared to carry out that procedure, the execution will be postponed.