Washington State Prepares to Kill

With the ongoing death toll in Iraq and Afghanistan, the floods in Pakistan, and countless other crises, it’s hard to get excited about one life–particularly when that life belongs to a man who brutally kidnapped and murdered a young woman. But we need to, because Cal Coburn Brown is scheduled to die, by lethal injection, on September 10th, 2010, at the Washington State penitentiary in Walla Walla–with our tax dollars and in our name.

But first, I want to talk about Holly Washa. She was 22 years old, the same age I was, in 1991, and had recently moved to Burien, Washington, from her home in Nebraska. On May 23rd 1991, as I was finishing up the last finals of my senior year in college, she pulled out of a driveway on Pacific Avenue South. A man lured her out of her car and kidnapped her at knife-point. She was taken to a SeaTac hotel where her assailant brutally raped her and abused her for 36 hours before cutting her throat and dumping her body in the trunk of her car.

Holly Washa was the victim of the murder for which Cal Brown is scheduled to be executed. As we talk about the death penalty, we should never lose sight of the victims of these crimes.

There is much that is wrong with the death penalty in this country. Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1973, 193 people have been released from death row because of evidence of their innocence. They were convicted and sentenced due to suppressed or tainted evidence, corrupt or biased law enforcement, prosecutorial misconduct, and incompetent defense attorneys. These are the ones we know about – it is highly likely that at least some of those who have been executed were innocent.

There is a deep racial bias in who gets sentenced to the death penalty in America. African-Americans, who make up only 13% of the US population, make up 43% of the population of death row. More significant is the race of the victim: though murder victims in death penalty trials tend to be equally white and African-American, 80% of all death-penalty convictions occur in cases with white victims, sending an unmistakable message that the justice system values white lives more than black.

There are other facts that speak to what is wrong with the death penalty. There are numerous studies that show it does not provide a deterrence to murder. Studies show that states with the death penalty have higher murder rates than neighboring states without it. There is the distinctly unfair application of it–Cal Brown gets the death penalty for brutally murdering one woman, while someone like Gary Ridgway, the Green River killer, brutally kills dozens of women and gets life without parole. There is also the ugly fact that there is no certain, painless way to kill someone. Executions can go badly and while not as dramatic as electric-chair malfunctions, which have resulted in severe burns during executions, botched lethal injections have resulted in long and slow death.

In this case, there is no question as to the guilt of Cal Brown; he confessed to the murder when he was first arrested, and he openly takes responsibility for it today. Brown and his victim were both white, and race did not significantly play a role in the case.

But Cal Brown did share another trait often found on death row: a long history of mental illness. Brown had Bipolar Disorder and was not receiving treatment at the time of the murder. Many people have Bipolar Disorder and most never commit heinous acts of violence, so one cannot blame his actions solely on his disease, but it very likely contributed. His conduct in prison, where he has been receiving treatment, has been exemplary and he has not committed a single infraction or received disciplinary action for any significant offense. Would Holly Washa be alive today if he had received treatment sooner?

The question runs deeper than that. Executions and prisons are expensive. Administering the death penalty is particularly expensive, as there are multiple levels of appeals and legal costs that are necessary to insure the innocent are not executed. The cost of incarcerating and executing people robs money from schools, from youth programs, and from community mental health programs that could help people with mental illness and prevent acts of violence, and with a lot less harm to society. Every dollar we spend to execute someone robs us of money that could be used to prevent crimes rather than punish them.

But it is too late to prevent this murder. I have a hard time feeling anything but anger at the brutality and violence that Brown inflicted on Holly Washa, and can only begin to imagine the terror, pain, and violation that she experienced in the 36 hours before her death. How can one pay for inflicting that kind of torture on another?

I have no answer to that. But I know that Brown’s execution will not undo the violence he has done, or bring back his victim. I know that it will not make us any safer, nor prevent others from committing the same brutal crime. I know it will not stop the ongoing crisis of violence against women.

Years ago, a woman I knew from Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation made a comment about the person who murdered her own family member that seemed particularly resonant. “I don’t know whether they deserve to die for what they did, but I know that I have no right to kill them.”

Nor do any of us. When we kill a human being in the name of justice, it sends a message that killing is OK and makes our society as a whole more violent. And killing another human being, when a reasonable alternative exists, is just wrong – no matter how heinous a crime they committed.

So I am writing Governor Christine Gregoire, to ask her to commute Brown’s sentence to life in prison without parole, and I hope some last-minute appeal can stop the execution from proceeding. But if it does go through, then on September 10th, as activists stand vigil outside the prison in Walla Walla, I will also remember the murder of Holly Washa, and hope we can find a way to end violence against anyone in our society.

Letters calling for Cal Brown’s sentence to be commuted to life without parole can be sent to:
Governor Chris Gregoire
Office of the Governor
PO Box 40002
Olympia, WA 98504-0002
Fax 360-753-4110

Attorney General Rob McKenna
1125 Washington St. SE
PO Box 40100
Olympia WA 98504-0100

Mr. Daniel T. Satterberg
King County Prosecutor
King County Courthouse
Room W554
516 Third Avenue
Seattle, WA 98104-2362

–John Chapman. For more information on this and other actions against the death penalty in Washington State, contact the Washington Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

Sources Washington Coalition Against the Death Penalty website. “Jury Gives Death Penalty to Cal Brown”, Seattle Times, December 27, 1993. “Death Penalty Overview: Ten Reasons Why Capital Punishment is Flawed Public Policy.” National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty website.

Comments

By Jonnie Gilman on September 13th, 2010 at 11:07 am

John Chapman conveniently neglects to mention the other assaults, rapes, tortures, and attempted murder that Cal Brown admitted his guilt to. I am glad that the state eliminated this serial killer. He was shown much more compassion than he gave his victims. Rest in peace Holly Washa.

Jonnie Gilman

By Rosanne Nettle on December 3rd, 2010 at 9:23 am

Great Post, I was looking for this info for quite a while, thank you for taking the time to post this informative post. I am Subscribing to your blog.

By Jim Dotson on July 24th, 2011 at 4:57 pm

Dear Jonnie,
I believe that this post must be from my old friend from seventies S.F. If it is drop me an email.
Peace,
Jim