If Cal Coburn Brown is put to death on September 10, he will be the first inmate in Washington to be executed since 2001.

According to court documents, Brown confessed to the assault and killing of a hotel worker in Seattle in 1991. He fled immediately thereafter to California and was arrested days later in Palm Springs after attempted assault on another victim there. He was brought back to Washington and subsequently sentenced by a King County jury to death in 1993.

Since then, Brown has made numerous appeals for review of his case. He was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection in March 2009, but received a stay from the Washington Supreme Court so that the Court could hear his appeal regarding a new method of injection adopted by the state's Department of Corrections. The Court ruled on July 29 of this year that execution could proceed.

A last-minute appeal to a U.S. District court met with the same response on August 31. Judge John C. Coughenour rejected Brown's request for further arguments regarding the injection protocol, calling them unnecessary.
 
"Given the strong interest of crime victims in finality," Coughenour said, in noting the 19 years since the victim's death, "this court cannot say that the public interest favors an injunction."

Coughenour further noted that Brown had neither argued his innocence nor that his trial was unfair. "Those arguments were heard and foreclosed long ago," he said.

Related Resource: www.seattlepi.com "Federal judge clears way for King County killer's execution" August 31, 2010