Summary:

While on parole for a violent sex crime, Brown carjacked 21 year old Holly Washa in the parking lot of a hotel and demanded at knifepoint that she "drive or die." He later forced her into the passenger seat, tied her hands behind her back and drove her to his motel nearby.

In his motel room, Brown forced Holly to remove her clothing, then tied her to the bed and raped and tortured her repeatedly for the course of several hours. Eventually, Brown put Holly in the trunk of her car, slit her throat, stabbed her repeatedly and left her to bleed to death in a parking lot.

Several days later, Holly's body was found in the trunk of her car. After stabbing Holly, Brown then flew to Palm Springs, California, to rendezvous with his next victim in another hotel room. He handcuffed her and slit her throat, but she survived and incredibly was able to call the police when Brown left the room. Brown was arrested in the hotel parking lot and quickly gave audio-taped confessions to both the rape and attempted murder of Susan in California, and the rape and murder of Holly Washa in Washington.

Citations:

State v. Brown, 132 Wash.2d 529, 940 P.2d 546 (Wash. 1997). (Direct Appeal)
Brown v. Uttecht, 530 F.3d 1031 (9th Cir. 2008). (Habeas)

Final / Special Meal:

Pizza, apple pie, and Root Beer.

Last Words:

In a lengthy statement, Brown did not apologize to Washa's family but said he understood their enmity for him. He said he forgave that hatred and hoped the execution would give them closure. He also said the prison staff had been most professional and that he had no complaints about his treatment there. However, Brown protested sentencing disparities, saying criminals who had killed many more people, such as Green River killer Gary Ridgway, were serving life sentences while he was put to death. "I only killed one victim. I cannot really see that there is true justice. Hopefully, sometime in the future that gets straightened out." Brown's final words were "Thank you, God bless you, God bless my family."

ClarkProsecutor.org

Attorney General of Washington

Background of the Cal Brown Case

NAME: Brown, Cal Coburn
D.O.B: April 16, 1958
Race: White
DATE OF CRIME: May 24, 1991
PLACE OF CRIME: King County

BRIEF FACTS: Cal Brown was convicted of aggravated first-degree murder for the 1991 stabbing and strangulation death of 21-year-old Holly Washa. The aggravating circumstances were that the murder was committed (1) to conceal the identity of the person committing the crime, and (2) in the course of or furtherance of Kidnapping in the First Degree, Rape in the First Degree, and Robbery in the First Degree. State v. Brown, King County Superior Court Cause No. 91-1-03233-1.

DATE OF CONVICTION: Dec. 10, 1993
SPECIAL SENTENCING: Dec. 27, 1993
JUDGMENT AND SENTENCE: King County Superior Court, Cause No. 91-1-03233-1, Jan. 28, 1994

Recent Developments:

Jan. 21, 2009: US Supreme Court denies petition for writ of certiorari

Jan 28, 2009: Mandate issued, execution scheduled for March 13, 2009

March 09, 2009: Washington Supreme Court denies Brown's original action against state officers. (Supreme Court No. 82742-7)

March 11, 2009: Thurston County Superior Court Judge Chris Wickham denies Cal Coburn Brown’s motion to stay his execution.

March 12, 2009: Clemency and Pardons Board heard Brown's request for clemency at 1 p.m., voted 2-2 to stay the execution.

March 12, 2009: Shortly after 4 p.m., the State Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to grant Brown a stay of execution.

July 10, 2009: Thurston County Superior Court issued its decision in Stenson, et al. v. Vail, et al. ruling that Washington's lethal injection protocol is constitutional both under the United States Constitution and Washington's Constitution. The Court concluded that Washington's lethal injection protocol is "designed to administer the death penalty in a way that is humane for both the inmate and the observers. It is an attempt to provide some dignity to this most grave event."

July 14, 2009: The AGO filed in the Washington Supreme Court a motion to vacate the stay entered for Cal Brown, but the motion was denied on Sept. 10, 2009. A date of execution cannot be set until the stay is vacated. Once the stay of execution is vacated, the date of execution will automatically reset for thirty judicial days (approximately 45 calendar days).

July 29, 2010: The Washington State Supreme Court dismissed various challenges to Washington's method of carrying out lethal injection and lifting the stay of execution for Brown. The justices unanimously agreed that the Legislature properly delegated to the state Department of Corrections the authority to enact and implement an execution protocol. The court also declared the inmates’ constitutional challenge to Washington’s three-drug lethal injection protocol as moot now that the state is using just one lethal injection drug, sodium thiopental. Brown, Stenson and Gentry argued in the trial court that that the current one-drug protocol would not inflict pain, and would therefore would be constitutional. Under state law, the date of execution automatically resets for 30 judicial days. Brown’s new execution date is set for

August 18, 2010: Brown and Gentry file a motion urging Judge John Coughenour to stay the Sept. 10 execution, arguing: the Department’s one drug protocol presents a risk of severe pain because the Department has provided no information regarding the qualifications of the lethal injection team; Brown was denied the right to access to courts by the change in the protocol; and the acquisition of the sodium thiopental violates the controlled substances act.

August 19, 2010: The State of Washington filed a motion requesting the court deny the motion for a stay.

August 31, 2010: The Honorable Judge John c. Coughenour issued an order denying Brown's motion for a stay.

Sept. 2, 2010: Brown filed an emergency motion for a stay of execution in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Brown’s motion argues that the lethal injection team is unqualified and that he was denied a full and fair hearing in both the state court and the district court because he was not permitted to conduct discovery regarding the qualifications and experience of the team members. He has asked for a stay until he has been given the opportunity to conduct discovery of the team members’ qualifications and experience. The state filed a response. Brown also filed an emergency motion to stay the execution along with his third personal restraint petition in the Washington State Supreme Court. Brown argues the execution of his death sentence will violate the state and federal Constitutions. He asserts his death sentence should be reversed because information relating to his mental illness (bipolar disorder) was improperly downplayed during sentencing.

Sept. 3, 2010: Brown filed a third motion in King County Superior Court, seeking a stay of execution based on his allegation that he is incompetent and cannot be executed as a result. King County is responding to this motion.

Sept. 4, 2010: The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a 2-1 decision, denying confessed murderer and rapist Cal Coburn Brown's motion for a stay of his pending Sept. 10 execution.

Sept. 7, 2010: Brown filed a petition for certiorari and an application for a stay of execution in the US Supreme Court alleging the US District Court, Western Washington, and the Ninth Circuit erred in denying a stay. The King County Superior Court denied Brown's Sept. 3 motion for a stay of execution based on his allegation that he is incompetent and cannot be executed as a result.

Sept. 8, 2010: Brown filed a motion for reconsideration of the Sept. 7 King County Superior Court ruling denying his motion for a stay. King County Superior Court then denied his motion for reconsideration. The Washington Supreme Court denied Brown's Sept. 2 motion for a stay of execution in his third personal restraint petition in which he argued he is incompetent and cannot be executed as a result. Governor Chris Gregoire issued a statement declining to grant Brown's petition to commute his sentence from death to life in prison without possibility of parole.

Sept. 9, 2010: The US Supreme Court denied Brown's motion asking the court to hear his appeal challenging Washington’s lethal injection protocols. Brown filed a motion requesting a stay of his execution in US District Court, Western Washington, in Seattle. His motion before District Court Judge John C. Coughenour argues that absent his medication, he would be incompetent to be executed. This motion, while similar to the motion before the state Supreme Court, is unrelated. The Washington State Supreme Court denied Brown's motion requesting a stay of his scheduled execution and arguing that absent his medication, he would be incompetent to be executed. Judge Coughenour rejected Brown's motion for a stay. Brown appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied his motion for a stay. Brown appealed the earlier decision by the Washington State Supreme Court to the US Supreme Court who did not respond by midnight.

Sept. 10, 2010: Brown was put to death by lethal injection. His time of death was 12:56 a.m.

Wash. executes man convicted of woman's murder

By Shannon Dininny and Nicholas K. Geranios - Associated Press

September 9, 2010

WALLA WALLA, Wash. — Convicted killer Cal Coburn Brown was executed early Friday by lethal injection for the rape, torture and murder of a Seattle-area woman, after delivering a statement complaining he was treated unfairly by the legal system. Brown, 52, died at 12:56 a.m. PDT, after a four-member team injected a lethal one-drug cocktail in the execution chamber of the Washington State Penitentiary.

The father, brother and two sisters of his victim, Holly Washa, 21, witnessed the execution, as did King County prosecutor Dan Satterberg. Brown protested sentencing disparities, saying that criminals who had killed many more people, such as Green River killer Gary Ridgway, were serving life sentences while he received a death sentence. "I only killed one victim," he said. "I cannot really see that there is true justice. Hopefully, sometime in the future that gets straightened out."

Brown did not apologize to the family of the victim, but said he understood their emnity for him. He said he forgave that hatred, held no emnity toward them and hoped the execution would give them closure. He also said the prison staff had been most professional and that he had no complaints about his treatment there in 17 years.

After his comments, Brown, who was lying on his back strapped to a gurney, looked up at the tubes sticking out of the wall and connected to his body. When the drug was administered, his chest heaved three times and his lips shuddered, then there was no movement. Brown's attorney and members of his family were not present at the execution, though he spoke with them by phone on Thursday.

The U.S. Supreme Court, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and the state Supreme Court on Thursday all rejected efforts to stay the execution. Gov. Chris Gregoire rejected his plea for clemency on Wednesday. It was Washington's first execution since 2001, and Brown had been on death row for 16 years.

Brown had argued that his mental illness was not adequately considered during his sentencing and that it should bar his execution. According to court records, he suffered from bipolar disorder.

Brown confessed to killing the 21-year-old Washa during an interrogation in California for an alleged assault on a woman there. He later led authorities to Washa's battered body, which was inside the trunk of a car. Brown, who is from San Jose, Calif., had a history of violence against women, including a 1977 conviction in California for assaulting a woman with a knife at a shopping center. He also served 7 1/2 years — the minimum sentence — for assaulting another woman in Oregon in 1984.

Washington state says new execution method was carried out 'humanely'

Family questions why Washington execution took 17 years

By Jennifer Sullivan - The Seattle Times

September 10, 2010

WALLA WALLA — Friday's execution of Cal Coburn Brown, the first time the state has used just one drug in a lethal injection, was carried out "professionally, humanely and was dignified," according to the state Department of Corrections. Washington and Ohio are the only two states that use a single drug, sodium thiopental, to execute condemned inmates. In other states, lethal injection is done with a three-drug cocktail, a method that has come under fire from defense lawyers and groups opposed to the death penalty. "Our preparation, and from what we have learned from the state of Ohio, we had every confidence the one-drug protocol would be efficient and swift," Belinda Stewart, Corrections spokeswoman, said Friday.

Coburn was executed early Friday morning at the Washington State Penitentiary for the May 1991 rape and murder of Holly Washa, 21, in a SeaTac motel.

After making a nearly three-minute statement from the prison's death chamber, Brown was administered five grams of sodium thiopental intravenously while strapped to a gurney. His chest heaved three times and his lips shuddered, then there was no movement.

Witnesses said Brown died about a minute and a half after the drug was administered. He was pronounced dead by prison officials at 12:56 a.m. Brown was the first person executed in Washington since August 2001. King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg, who witnessed the execution along with members of Washa's family and several news reporters, characterized Brown's death as "quick and painless."

"It's been so long that we have had to deal with all of this; now that it's over, I don't have to think about him anymore," a tearful Becky Washa, Holly's sister, told reporters during a news conference after the execution. The Walla Walla County Coroner's Office is scheduled to perform an autopsy on Brown, 52, according to Stewart.

Portland-based anti-death-penalty attorney Jeff Ellis, who was a member of Brown's defense team, said "there are many reasons to conclude that the one-drug protocol lessens the risk of needless pain and suffering." However, he said, it obscures the basic issue of whether the state should be in the business of killing. "As long as we have a death penalty, we must take measures to avoid the needless infliction of pain on the person who is being killed," he said. "However, killing a human being is never humane when we could instead lock him up forever."

The state Supreme Court stayed Brown's execution last year after his attorneys claimed the state's three-drug method of lethal injection — the anesthetic sodium thiopental, as well as a paralyzer and a heart-attack-inducing drug — constituted cruel and unusual punishment and was prone to error. Two other inmates on death row, Darold Stenson and Jonathan L. Gentry, joined the appeal, which effectively put on hold executions in the state. The Department of Corrections subsequently made the one-drug lethal injection the primary method of death, while also allowing the condemned to choose the three-drug method. Death-row inmates may opt for hanging instead of lethal injection. The last man to be executed by hanging was Charles Campbell in May 1994.

In July 2010, the state Supreme Court lifted the stay because the change in execution policy made the initial argument moot. Over the past year, Ohio switched to the single-drug method after the botched execution of Romell Broom that was halted by Gov. Ted Strickland last September. Executioners unsuccessfully tried for hours to find a usable vein for injection, and Broom has appealed the state's attempt to try again.

Ellis said there is a condemned inmate on Oregon's death row who has petitioned to change that state's system of execution to the single-drug protocol. He said he is certain other states watched how the one-drug protocol worked during Brown's execution. "I think that within a couple of years, they'll go to the one-drug protocol," Ellis said Friday. It's just more humane. There just isn't any debate about that."

Timeline of Cal Coburn Brown case

May 23 and 24, 1991: Cal Coburn Brown kidnaps Holly Washa, 21, of Burien, near Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. He tortures and repeatedly rapes her before killing her by slashing her throat.

May 27: Brown is arrested in California after he attacks a woman in Palm Springs. He surprises detectives by confessing to Washa's slaying during questioning.

June 11: Brown is charged with aggravated murder in King County Superior Court.

Dec. 10, 1993: Jury finds Brown guilty of murder.

Jan. 28, 1994: Brown is sentenced to death.

June 29, 1997: The state Supreme Court affirms Brown's conviction and death sentence.

Dec. 8, 2005: The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reverses the conviction and death sentence because of an alleged error in jury selection.

June 1, 2007: The U.S. Supreme Court reverses the appellate court's decision, finding that Brown had waived any challenge to jury selection by not objecting when a juror was excused for cause.

June 27, 2008: The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals affirms the conviction and death sentence after the case is returned from U.S. Supreme Court.

March 12, 2009: Less than eight hours before Brown's scheduled execution, the state Supreme Court issues a stay based on a last-minute appeal filed by Brown's attorneys challenging lethal injection.

July 29, 2010: The state Supreme Court rejects the challenge to the lethal-injection procedure and lifts the stay on Brown's execution.

Sept. 10: Brown is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla.

Execution in Washington 20 Years After Arrest in Palm Springs

KPSPlocal2.com

A vicious murderer and rapist has been put to death in Washington, but the execution of 52-year-old Cal Brown may have never happened, if it weren't for another brutal crime he committed in the Coachella Valley. Investigators say days after he tortured, raped and killed 21-year-old Holly Washa, back in 1991, Brown came to Palm Springs and found another victim.

Inside what used to be a hotel on South Palm Canyon, Brown slashed a woman's throat, then tried to keep her alive, by wrapping her neck in sanitary napkins and nylon stockings, so he could withdraw money from her bank account, according to court documents. Fortunately, she survived the attack. "She was partially tied to the bed, but able to work free and call the front desk" recalled Cathedral City Police Lt. Glen Haas, then a 26-year-old Palm Springs Police Officer who made the arrest, not far from the hotel.

"There was only a couple of directions he could go," said Lt. Haas. "I ran out, and there was a man walking down Palm Canyon as if it was an early morning stroll." The man turned out to be Cal Brown. "Handcuffed him; found the weapon in his pocket, still had blood on it..still stained."

And in Palm Springs Police custody, Brown confessed to more than one crime to detectives. "He said something to the effect of, 'I have something else to tell you, and you better get something to write with,'" described Lt. Haas. "He tells them (detectives) a story about abducting this young girl in Washington, and they would find her body in the trunk of a car at SeaTac Airport in Seattle.

Washa's body was found, and Brown was eventually extradited to Washington where he was tried and sentenced to the death penalty. "He was an evil, evil person that can't hurt anyone anymore," said Lt. Haas, who still thinks about the young victim in Washington and her family. "Doesn't matter how long you've been a police officer, there's a human element that brings a tear to your eye and makes your heart ache."

Last Night's Execution Of Cal Coburn Brown Will Save 5 To 15 Lives Probably

SoundPolitics.com

It has been years since he committed his horrendous crimes, so a review of them is in order:

[Holly] Washa had left Ogallala, Neb., three years before her murder believing Seattle was a prime spot to pursue a career as a flight attendant. She found part-time work as a dispatcher at a Seattle cable-television company and at a Hickory Farms store in Southcenter mall. Brown carjacked Washa, 21, at knife point near Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on May 23, 1991, and forced her to drive to a bank to withdraw money. He then held her for 34 hours at a motel where she was repeatedly raped, robbed, tortured and then slashed to death.

Brown then flew to California, where he was arrested for trying to rape and kill a woman. While being questioned by Palm Springs police, Brown told them they could find Washa's body in the trunk of her Oldsmobile in the parking lot of a SeaTac car-rental agency. Brown had been released from Oregon State Penitentiary just two months earlier despite the protests of a prosecutor who had helped convict him in 1984 for assaulting a woman.

In all the years he has been on death row, he has shown little remorse for his crimes.

For decades, there has been an academic debate over whether the death penalty deters murders. Simplifying greatly, you could say that the early part of that debate was dominated by sociologists who found no deterrent effect, and the latter part has been dominated by economists, who have found that every execution deters a number of murders, with most studies finding that it deters between 5 and 15 murders. You can find a list of recent studies here, and a New York Times article on them here. (You can find a dissenting view on the studies here.)

In my opinion, the economists have had the better of the argument, though the very range, 5-15, shows us that the matter is not settled. I say that, not just because economists tend to be far better methodologists than sociologists — though they do — but because the conclusion is a common sense one. If someone threatens our lives, almost all of us behave differently. But I do not think that the academic question is settled, for reasons I explained in this 2005 post. (Which is illustrated with an example of a famous killer.) But you don't need to take my word for it; you can take the considered opinion of economist Gary Becker.

Gary Becker, who won the Nobel Prize in economics in 1992 and has followed the debate, said the current empirical evidence was "certainly not decisive" because "we just don't get enough variation to be confident we have isolated a deterrent effect." But, Mr. Becker added, "the evidence of a variety of types — not simply the quantitative evidence — has been enough to convince me that capital punishment does deter and is worth using for the worst sorts of offenses."

That the evidence is "not decisive" does not absolve us from the responsibility to act. If Becker is right, then the death penalty saves lives, and abandoning it will lead to the loss of more innocents like Holly Washa. I think trading 1 Cal Coburn Brown for 5 to 15 Holly Washas is a good exchange. Those who oppose the death penalty are either unwilling to look at the evidence as Becker has, or willing to accept the death of many Holly Washas in order, as they see it, not to be complicit in the death of 1 Cal Coburn Brown. (I can understand that position, though I do not share it, but few who do seem to be willing to go all the way with it, since it implies an absolute commitment to pacifism. Among other things, it implies that police should not be armed with deadly weapons, and that we should abandon our armed forces.) You can make a pragmatic argument against the death penalty by saying that opponents have made death penalty fights so expensive that we would be better off using the money to reduce murders in other ways. I haven't seen such an argument, with actual numbers, but would be willing to look at it. I might still reject it, because it would allow a minority, using guerrilla tactics in our legal system, to over-rule the majority.

I saw two of the stories on this execution on our local TV stations. Neither story mentioned the possible deterrent effect of the execution. The story on channel 13, KCPQ, was so one-sided as to be more of an anti-capital-punishment editorial than a story. This kind of coverage is typical of death penalty stories.

State of Washington Office of the Governor

For Release: Immediate

Date: Sept. 8, 2010

Governor Gregoire’s statement on Cal Brown petition

OLYMPIA – Gov. Chris Gregoire today issued the following statement on Cal Brown’s petition to commute his death sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole: “As governor, I have a constitutional duty to faithfully execute the laws of the state of Washington. I also have the solemn power to commute a death sentence to life imprisonment. The people of the State have entrusted the governor with this clemency power to use in extraordinary circumstances that call for leniency. The people did not inten this power to substitute personal views for the laws of the State.

“Cal Brown has petitioned for commutation of his death sentence to life imprisonment. I have carefully reviewed the facts of Cal Brown’s crimes, the documents and te the Clemency and Pardons Board, documents submitted to my office, and the judicial record.

“After this careful review, and after contemplating the grave importance of this matter, I have determined I will not intervene. I find no ba the jury in accordance with the laws of our state.

“I know of no extenuating circumstances and no flaws in the judicial process that justify changing the jury’s decisions or the sentence of to consider his diagnosis of a mental disorder. But the jury heard this evidence and considered whether he knew right from wrong and was in control of his conduct at the time of the murder of Holly Washa. State law provides the jury may consider any relevant factors, specifically including impairment due to a mental disorder, in deciding whether leniency is merited.

“The post-conviction review by the courts has been thorough. Since Cal Brown’s conviction, the U. S. Supreme Court, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and the Washington State Supreme Court have reviewed his case and have found no basis to reverse his conviction or to change the death sentence imposed by the jury.

“The torture, rape and murder of Holly Washa were horrible acts of brutality. My sympathies and prayers are with Holly Washa’s family, who has suffered immeasurably from Cal Brown’s actions. No one can do anything to take away or lessen their pain. As a mother, my heart goes out to them for their tragic loss. I pray for Holly Washa. I will also pray for Cal Brown.”

Background Information:

In 1993 a jury in King County Superior Court convicted Cal Coburn Brown of premeditated murder with aggravating circumstances for the death of 21-year-old Holly Washa. Cal Brown admitted that he kidnapped Holly Washa, brutally raped and tortured her for two days, and then murdered her by slitting her throat. He told detectives he killed Holly Washa because he did not want to leave any witness alive.

In a special sentencing proceeding, Cal Brown’s attorneys presented evidence of mitigating circumstances, and the jury was asked whether it was “convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that there are not sufficient mitigating circumstances to merit leniency.” The jury unanimously concluded, beyond a reasonable doubt, that there were not sufficient mitigating circumstances to merit leniency.

The laws of the state of Washington provide that if the jury finds that there are not sufficient mitigating circumstances to merit leniency, the sentence shall be death. Accordingly, on January 28, 1994, the trial court imposed upon Cal Brown a sentence of death.

On March 11, 2009, Cal Brown submitted a petition requesting that the Governor commute his death sentence to imprisonment for life without the possibility of parole. A hearing was held before the Clemency and Pardons Board on March 12, 2009. At the conclusion of the hearing, the Clemency and Pardons Board voted 2-2 on a motion to recommend that the Governor deny Mr. Brown’s petition. The two members voting against the motion expressed general views that the death penalty is problematic as applied or should be abolished. A few hours later the Washington Supreme Court entered an order staying the execution.

After the stay was lifted and the execution scheduled, Governor Gregoire reviewed the petition and the materials submitted to the Board, the Verbatim Report of Proceedings of the Board’s March 12, 2009, hearing, a supplemental letter sent to the Governor by Cal Brown’s attorneys on September 1, 2010, and judicial records.

Friend of Cal Brown's victim remembers Holly Washa

By Owen Lei - King5.com

September 8, 2010

SEATTLE -- Cal Brown, a murderer on death row, is running out of options. His execution is scheduled just after midnight Friday. Meantime, a friend of his victim, Holly Washa, has been waiting almost two decades to see justice. "She had the biggest blue eyes," said Kim Bowen, who said the 22-year old moved to Washington to pursue her dream of being a flight attendant. "She just had this great strength about her, coming straight off a farm. I mean, straight off a farm, in Ogallala, Nebraska."

On Wednesday, Brown lost three chances to stop his impending execution. Late in the afternoon, the State Supreme Court denied a request for an emergency stay, 8-to-1. Brown had claimed his mental illness (bipolar disorder) was improperly downplayed during his sentencing.

An hour earlier, Governor Chris Gregoire also denied clemency Wednesday, saying she would not intervene in the execution. And in the morning, a King County Superior Court judge upheld her Tuesday ruling against Brown's claim that his mental illness made him unfit to stand trial in the first place.

Bowen's hope is that this means, after Friday, she will no longer have to picture Cal Coburn Brown, 55. "Whether he's lived his life in prison, he's still lived another 18 years," Bowen said. "She could have had a family. She could have been married. We would have loved to have her here with us."

Brown kidnapped Washa back in 1991. He tortured and raped her over a period of 36 hours at a SeaTac motel before killing her and leaving her body in her own car in a nearby park-and-ride. He was arrested after a similar incident in Palm Springs, Calif., where he confessed to Washa's murder. In 1993, a jury convicted him. He was sentenced to the death penalty.

But on March 12, 2009, about eight hours before the execution was to be carried out, it was put on hold over the constitutionality of the lethal injection method. Brown and his attorneys are still trying to prevent him from being the first convict executed in Washington since 2001, and just the fifth since 1963.

They maintain his bipolar disorder was never given enough weight during his trial and sentencing. They also claim the Washington State Department of Corrections staff isn't qualified to administer the state's new one-drug lethal injection. Among their remaining options: the U.S. Supreme Court has not yet decided if it will take up Brown's claim again the injection team, and Brown can still appeal today's King County ruling to the State Supreme Court.

Bowen hopes neither of those will happen. "It's well beyond time that the sentence be carried out," Bowen said. "It serves no purpose to grant him another stay [of execution]. There's no reason to do it. He needs to die."

Bowen leaves Thursday to attend the scheduled execution, she said. "It's not closure, but you're... moving on to the next phase of grieving," she said, "and that next phase is Cal Brown's gone, and now we don't have to think about him anymore, and we can just rejoice in who Holly was and hold onto her as people who love her."

Cal Coburn Brown

ProDeathPenalty.com

In 1984, Cal Coburn Brown was sentenced as a dangerous offender for his attempted assault on a 24-year-old woman in Corvallis, Oregon. Brown, a freshman at Oregon State University at the time, had been introduced to the woman by her babysitter. Brown appeared at the woman's home wearing a hat and carrying a backpack. He persuaded her to let him rest what he claimed was a sprained leg. When she turned her head to call him a cab, Brown flung a 43-inch leather thong over her head to choke her, but the thong caught on her lip. The victim recalled the thong instantly tightening and she was yanked off her feet backwards. She landed on her stomach six feet away with the thong still around her neck and Brown kneeling behind her. She rolled to her side and saw him wild-eyed staring into her face." He held her, and she screamed and a police officer who happened to be nearby arrested him. Police found a large knife and a roll of two-inch wide duct tape in his backpack. The woman's two small sons were home during the attack.

At the time, Brown already had an extensive criminal record, including a 1977 conviction in California that involved a knife assault on a woman in a shopping center. Brown served the minimum seven-and-a-half-year sentence for the Oregon attempted assault conviction and was released on parole from the Oregon State Penitentiary on March 25, 1991, after receiving a favorable psychiatric evaluation. Upon Brown's release, he was placed under the supervision of a parole office who specialized in the supervision of sex offenders. The parole officer was given a letter from the district attorney who had prosecuted Brown on the dangerous offender case. In the letter, the DA stated that not only did he consider Brown to be one of the most dangerous criminals whom he had ever prosecuted, but also that "unless he has undergone a remarkable transformation in prison, he will remain a potential mutilator and killer of women."

During the first two months of his parole, Brown had enrolled as a student at Oregon State University and had met with his parole officer. Towards the end of that period, the parole officer could not get in touch with Brown and on May 23, 1991, requested that an arrest warrant be filed on Brown. On the very same day, Brown carjacked Holly Carol Washa in the parking lot of a hotel near the Seattle-Tacoma Airport and demanded at knifepoint that she "drive or die." He later forced her into the passenger seat, tied her hands behind her back and drove her to his motel nearby. In his motel room, Brown forced Holly to remove her clothing, then tied her to the bed and raped and tortured Holly repeatedly for the course of several hours. The next day, Brown forced Holly to call in sick at her job at TCI Cablevision. He again tied Holly to the bed, gagged her and sexually assaulted her with foreign objects, including a bottle. He whipped her and shocked her with an electrical cord. Eventually, Brown put Holly Washa in the trunk of her car, slit her throat, stabbed her repeatedly and left her to bleed to death in a parking lot.

Several days later, Holly's body was found in the trunk of her car. After stabbing Holly, Brown then flew to Palm Springs, California, to rendezvous with his next victim, a woman named Susan, whom he had met on an airplane a few days earlier and with whom he had made weekend plans. While inside their hotel room, Brown offered to give Susan a backrub. He was rubbing her back when he suddenly jerked her arms behind her back in a "very fast, brutal way. He said, 'Don't scream." I did scream and...he slit my throat." Brown handcuffed Susan with her arms behind her back. She saw blood on the pillow. "At that point he lowered the knife so that I could see it. It was down near my heart, pointed toward me." Brown stopped the bleeding with a makeshift bandage of sanitary napkins held against her throat with her nylons, and then sexually assaulted Susan. Then he forced her to write a check for $4000 to him. He left the room to get more bandages. Amazingly, Susan was able to call the front desk and summon the police, who arrived and obtained a description of Brown from Susan, and arrested Brown in the hotel parking lot. Brown quickly gave audio-taped confessions to both the rape and attempted murder of Susan in California, and the rape and murder of Holly Washa in Washington.

After pleading guilty in California and receiving a sentence of life imprisonment, Brown was tried in Washington. A jury convicted Brown of aggravated first-degree murder, and sentenced him to death. In 2007, when the US Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal from Brown, Holly's family expressed their frustration. "Here he is, all these years later, enjoying the life that some people don't have," said Ruthcile Washa, the grandmother of Holly Washa, a 21-year-old Nebraska native who came to Seattle to follow her big-city dreams and was murdered by Brown. "The death penalty will give us peace of mind that he won't get out and do this to someone else." Washa left tiny Ogallala, Nebraska because she wanted to be a flight attendant. Washa left Ogallala in February 1988 to attend a three-month course at the International Air Academy in Vancouver, Wash. Three months later, she moved to Seattle. She worked part-time as a dispatcher at TCI Cablevision and two weeks before her murder began a second job in a Hickory Farms store in Southcenter mall. Her former boyfriend, Don Briscoe, said he and Holly had met in the Vancouver school and lived together until the month prior to her murder. He said they had decided to take a break from their relationship but remained close friends. "She was the sweetest person; she cared about people so much," Briscoe said. In 2005, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Brown's death sentence, but it was reinstated by the US Supreme Court in 2007. Brown had a prior execution date in March 2009 but received a stay.