the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously overturned the death sentence of Cal Coburn Brown.

the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously overturned the death sentence of Cal Coburn Brown. The 3-judge panel concluded that the King County judge (Ricardo Martinez ) in the case of Brown had unconstitutionally excluded a potential juror who had expressed some reservations about the death penalty.
In 1991, Brown carjacked 21-year-old Holly Washa. He held her hostage and raped and tortured the girl for 2 days before killing her.
Brown, 47, turned himself in after he raped and tried to kill another woman in California. He admitted to both crimes. In 1993, a King County jury sentenced him to die.
But today the Court of Appeals found that at least 1 of the bases for Brown's appeal, regarding the selection of the jury in his case, was valid.
In the case of a man identified as "Juror Z," the judges found that although he agreed that such mitigating factors as childhood trauma or mental illness could be taken into account when deciding a death case, he had "expressed no antipathy toward the death penalty" and had been removed from the panel unfairly.