Cops and Courts

Witness to an Execution: witnesses prepare as judge reconsiders a stay of execution

By Nancy Mullane on September 28, 2010 - 5:12pm
The media will stand behind the velvet rope on Thursday, should the execution proceed. Photo by Rina Palta
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KALW's Nancy Mullane was chosen as one of nine media witnesses for the execution of Albert Greenwood Brown that is tentatively taking place on Thursday, September 30 at San Quentin Prison. Read Part I and Part III Nancy Mullane's reflections.

It’s 1:33 on Tuesday afternoon, September 28. I just got off the phone with Terry Thornton, CDCR’s press spokesperson in Sacramento. We’ve known each other over the years through phone interviews and my work on stories about the CDCR and prisoners.

Today, we talked about the pending execution and how and whether it will proceed on Thursday at 9 p.m. It looks like it will all come down to this Thursday afternoon, when U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel of San Jose will announce his decision to either stop or allow the execution procedure along with the dozens of detailed preparatory steps.

It looked like everything was a go until last night at 10 p.m. That’s when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit instructed Judge Fogel to consider whether the state’s recently revised protocol for lethal injection corrects the flaws Fogel was concerned with when he issued his 2006 injunction halting executions. It was then, four years ago, that Fogel concluded the state’s earlier lethal injection procedures caused an unnecessary risk of cruel and unusual punishment.

A quick recap: last week, Judge Fogel lifted the injunction halting the executions of death row inmates, allowing the scheduled execution of Albert Greenwood Brown to move forward to September 29 at 12:01 a.m. Then, Governor Schwarzenegger issued a temporary reprieve so the courts could fully examine the new execution procedures. Now, with the ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Fogel has given California’s Attorney General and the attorneys representing Albert Greenwood Brown, the death row inmate scheduled to be executed, six hours to provide “as much detail as possible as to the substantial similarities and differences” between the new and the old protocols and whether the state should execute Brown on Thursday. 

Thornton said no one knows how this is going to go. In fact, she said, “We could all be in the execution chamber Thursday night and it could be stopped.” From this moment forward, we just have to stay tuned and wait for the judge to make his decision.

It’s an odd, almost out-of-body experience, reporting on this execution.

Unlike most people, I’ve gotten to know Terry and others who work inside the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. They are people with children and lives, and now they are representing a state agency that is setting in motion the execution of a man who killed a young girl 30 years ago.

Terry reassured me of a few things. First, there will be counselors available for the witnesses to talk to after the execution is over. The media witnesses won’t be sitting in chairs, but they will be standing behind the chairs where the unnamed dignitaries will be sitting.

Just a few hours ago, I received an email from the CDCR, with “Instructions to Media Regarding the September 30, 2010 Scheduled Execution at San Quentin State Prison.” We will need to bring our own food and drink. “Alcoholic beverages, cigarettes, tobacco products and illegal drugs are not permitted on state property.”

The East Gate “is the designated gathering place for public protest and there will be no access to the East Gate for credentialed media in the Media Center.” At 3 p.m. the California Highway Patrol will close the Main Street of San Quentin Village to all vehicle traffic.

Media witnesses will be provided a briefing before the scheduled execution. The briefing will include information about custodial expectations and post-traumatic syndrome symptoms. We won’t be able to bring anything with us into the chamber, but we will be handed a writing implement, probably a pencil and a pad of paper that we can take notes on.

It’s still not clear whether the media witnesses will be able to speak with the victim witnesses or the inmate’s witnesses after the execution.

Jan B. Norman, the attorney who has been representing Albert Greenwood Brown for the past 16 years, told me yesterday no one from his family will be there to witness his execution.