Courts reject appeals from death row inmate as Wash. prepares for 1st execution since 2001

Washington prepares for 1st execution since 2001

WALLA WALLA, Wash. — Prison officials are making final preparations for Washington state’s first execution since 2001.

Convicted murderer Cal Coburn Brown is scheduled to die by lethal injection early Friday. On Thursday night, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to overturn the ruling of a federal judge in Seattle who declined to block the execution.

Earlier, the U.S. Supreme Court and the Washington state Supreme Court both denied appeals.

Brown claims he’s incompetent because of mental illness. According to court documents, he suffers from bipolar disorder.

He was convicted in the 1991 rape, torture and murder of 21-year-old Holly Washa near Sea-Tac airport. Brown was hours from being executed in March 2009 when he received a last-minute stay over the constitutionality of Washington’s lethal injection policy.

The state has since changed its execution method from a three-drug cocktail to a one-drug injection.