SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California's first execution in nearly five years was pushed back almost two days Monday by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to allow courts more time to consider the condemned inmate's appeals.
Brown is now scheduled to die by lethal injection at 9 p.m. Thursday, said Terry Thornton, spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Brown initially was scheduled for execution at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday.
The 45-hour reprieve pushes the execution to within hours of the Friday expiration date on the state's supply of sodium thiopental, one of the drugs used in the lethal injection process.
Hospira, the only company in the country that makes the drug, said it has production problems and can't deliver any new shipments until early next year. Several other states have rescheduled executions because of the drug shortage.
The company has also told prison officials across the country, "we do not support the use of any of our products in capital punishment procedures."
The California attorney general's office said Monday it would recommend not scheduling any more executions after Thursday until the state can secure a fresh supply of the drug, an anesthetic that renders condemned inmates unconscious before lethal drugs are injected.
