Legal issues delay Albert Brown’s execution

A judge's gavel rests on top of a desk in a courtroom.

Death row inmate Albert Greenwood Brown was scheduled to die at 9 p.m. Thursday for the 1980 rape and murder of a Riverside girl. First Governor Schwarzenegger ordered a one-day delay in the execution. And then late yesterday, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a trial judge to reconsider a ruling that allowed Brown to choose a one-drug lethal injection—so that will cause further delays. What are the legal grounds for the reversal? And what will this mean for Brown and other death row inmates as California continues to struggle with the correct administration of the death penalty?

Death row inmate Albert Greenwood Brown was scheduled to die at 9 p.m. Thursday for the 1980 rape and murder of a Riverside girl. First Governor Schwarzenegger ordered a one-day delay in the execution. And then late yesterday, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a trial judge to reconsider a ruling that allowed Brown to choose a one-drug lethal injection—so that will cause further delays. What are the legal grounds for the reversal? And what will this mean for Brown and other death row inmates as California continues to struggle with the correct administration of the death penalty?

Guest:

Laurie L. Levenson, Professor of Law, Loyola Law School