Judge gives death row inmate 18 more hours to consider method of execution

Inmate gets more time to choose execution method

SAN FRANCISCO — A judge has given a death row inmate another day to choose his execution method.

Albert Greenwood Brown has until noon Sunday to decide between a lethal injection of one drug or the three-drug cocktail California has used in its last 12 executions.

U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel extended the deadline late Saturday after denying Brown’s second request to reconsider his ruling authorizing the execution Wednesday.

Fogel said he would cancel the execution if prison officials refused a request for a one-drug execution. But in court filings Friday and Saturday, the state said it was prepared to carry out such an execution.

Brown’s attorneys on Monday will ask a Marin County Superior Court judge to block the execution and are also considering an appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.