OLYMPIA, Wash. -- The [Washington] Attorney General’s office has set a September execution date for convicted murderer Cal Coburn Brown. Brown was found guilty of killing Holly Washa in March 1994. The execution date comes on the heels of a State Supreme Court ruling on the challenge wbrought by death row inmates. Attorneys argued among other things that the state's three-drug method of execution constituted cruel and unusual punishment. KUOW’s Patricia Murphy reports.

The high court ruled that the challenge was moot, since the state formally switched to a one-drug method of execution in May of this year.

In March the Supreme Court stayed Cal Coburn Brown's execution hours before he was scheduled to die. Today's ruling lifts that stay.

16 years ago Brown raped and tortured Holly Washa for 36 hours before killing her. Brown's attorneys can ask for a U.S. Supreme Court review of the state court's decision. However, [Washington] Attorney General Rob McKenna says that in itself would not be grounds for a stay.

Also, while the constitutionality of the state's single-drug method has not been ruled on, McKenna says that, too, is unlikely to hold up the execution.

Rob McKenna: "The Supreme Court's opinion points out there's been no trial on the constitutionality of the new one-drug protocol, but also describes in some detail the facts of the one-drug protocol in such a way that leads us to believe the court, or a majority of the court, would not be very supportive of the idea of issuing a stay to permit a trial on the one-drug protocol."

Brown is now scheduled to be executed September 10. King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg said it was time for the sentence to be carried out. Death row inmates Jonathan Gentry and Darold Stenson were also part of the lawsuit, but the Supreme Court noted that other states have stayed their executions and that the high court is not in a position to act on those orders. I'm Patricia Murphy reporting.

Copyright 2010 KUOW

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