Albert Greenwood Brown

Who is Albert Greenwood Brown?

Albert Greenwood Brown, Jr. is an American convicted of sexual molestation of a minor, two counts of rape, and the murder of an adolescent in Riverside, California. He was scheduled to die by lethal injection at 9 p.m. on September 30, 2010 in California's first use of capital punishment after the lifting of a court-ordered moratorium. The use of lethal injection had been suspended in the state since February 2006 because of objections of cruel and unusual punishment due to shortcomings of the facilities and procedures previously in use at San Quentin State Prison. Brown's lawyers appealed to block their client's execution, with the execution initially planned to be carried out in a new facility at the prison that is certified to utilize either a single or three-drug protocol.

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered U.S. District Judge Jeremy D. Fogel to review the case, noting that the execution date may have been influenced by the fact that the prison's inventory of sodium thiopental, one of the drugs required for lethal injection, would expire on October 1, 2010.