Appeals court denies inmate's request
Published: Thu, Apr. 20, 2006 02:42PM
Modified Thu, Apr. 20, 2006 02:47PM
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closeRALEIGH — Death row inmate Willie Brown Jr.'s execution is set to go forward at 2 a.m. Friday after a federal appeals court denied his request for a delay today.
Brown, 61, is still waiting to hear from the U.S. Supreme Court about an appeal and Gov. Mike Easley about his request for clemency. Two federal appeals court judges affirmed today the opinion by U.S. District Court Judge Malcolm Howard's that the state has proposed adequate measures to ensure Brown is unconscious before he is injected with lethal drugs.
The state will have a doctor and nurse monitor a medical device that measures brain waves to indicate how sedated Brown is before paralytic and heart-stopping drugs are injected. Brown's lawyers have argued that he is at risk for a painful execution because an anesthesiologist is the only medical professional truly qualified to determine if he is fully unconscious.
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Brown was sentenced to death for the 1983 slaying of Vallerie Ann Roberson Dixon, a clerk at the Zip Mart in Williamston. Dixon was taken from the store and found lying face down along a logging road, shot six times.
Brown, who maintains his innocence, was convicted of murder and armed robbery.
Staff writer Andrea Weigl can be reached at 829-4848 or aweigl@newsobserver.com
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