Murderer's execution date put on hold

RIVERSIDE — The delayed execution of convicted murderer Albert Greenwood Brown will likely see another date, but the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office has not announced when it would make another request.

Brown was scheduled to be executed on Sept. 30 for a murder he committed in 1980. In 1982, a jury found him guilty of killing and raping Susan Jordan, 15.

In recent days, prison officials have obtained 12 grams of sodium thiopental, the shortage of which factored into Brown’s Sept. 30 execution date being halted, according to some local officials.

“That was part of the reason it was cancelled,” district attorney spokesman John Hall said in a news release. “That and other legal delays. It’s all part of the process.”

Brown’s original execution date was set Aug. 30 by Riverside Superior Court Judge Roger Luebs. Brown had also served time for raping Kelly P. Brown (no relation to Albert Brown) in October 1977, in addition to committing 22 admitted burglaries or robberies in both Riverside and Porterville.

Brown had been out of prison for 4 ½ months before his attack on Susan Jordan.

The state called off Brown’s execution the day before, after two significant legal setbacks and the expiration of its seven-gram supply of the necessary drug that night.

New supplies of the drug were acquired last week. In court records, the state did not reveal why it couldn’t be used in the planned execution.

According to DA officials, any future plan to execute any prisoner in California will include written arguments from both defense attorneys and the state attorney general’s office before any court hearings are scheduled.

A judge must also inspect the state’s new death chamber, which could mean that a hearing could be held at San Quentin State Prison.

State law requires that, in capital cases, local DA officials make a motion for a public session, requesting that a judge set an execution date.

“Once the defendant has exhausted all the appellate remedies in the court, the district attorney in the jurisdiction of the crime then makes a motion,” Hall said.