SAN JOSE, Calif., Sept. 28 (UPI) -- A judge has blocked execution this week of a convicted California rapist-murderer, ruling he cannot review the case properly before the sentence is carried out.
U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel had ruled Friday the state could execute Albert Greenwood Brown, 56, for raping and strangling 15-year-old Susan Jordan in Riverside, Calif., 30 years ago.
Brown had been scheduled to die Wednesday but California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Monday ordered a one-day delay in the execution to give defense attorneys time to exhaust appeals. An appeals court then ordered Fogel to revisit his ruling in view of the state's new lethal injections protocols.
Fogel said Tuesday there was "no way" an adequate review could be conducted before the sentence was to be carried out Thursday, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The state attorney general's office has determined that after Friday, no lethal injection executions may be carried out the rest of the year because the supply of one of three drugs used in the procedure is about to run out. New supplies are expected to be available in 2011, the newspaper said.
Fogel halted an execution in 2006, ruling the state's procedure for lethal injection was flawed and violated the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
