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Delayed execution is main injustice
If anyone deserves to be executed for a crime, it's Cal Coburn Brown.
Brown was convicted of the brutal kidnapping, torture, rape and killing of Ogallala native, Holly Washa, 22, in Seattle in May 1991.
Brown, 50, at 12:01 a.m. Friday, is likely to be the first execution in the state of Washington since 2001.
Under the system used to execute him -- probably the same one that will be adopted in Nebraska -- a first drug causes the prisoner to lose consciousness, preventing pain; a second drug causes muscle paralysis so the prisoner stops breathing and a third drug stops the heart.
Browns attorneys have argued that the lethal cocktail may amount to cruel and unusual punishment, because there's no way to know whether he experiences pain in the process.
They also argue that a doctor or nurse anesthiologist should administer the drugs, rather than the "medical professional" who will do so Friday.
That argument hasn't found favor with a court yet, so it's up to Washington's governor and supreme court to save Brown's life.
We'll forgive his victim's survivors for not feeling sympathy for Brown.
Motioning to Washa that she had a flat tire, Brown carjacked her at knife point, and forced her to write checks to him, which he attempted to cash.
He then took her to a hotel, raped and tortured her, slashed and stabbed her and left her body in the trunk of her car. Holly suffered for a terrible, horrifying 36 hours.
Brown wasn't caught until he later repeated his actions on another woman in California, but she lived and was able to call police.
Attorneys are right in contending there is injustice in the case, but not in the way they say. The real injustice is that the execution wasn't carried out 18 years ago.