'I would just call him a coward and spit on him'

A murdered woman's family is driving across the country to witness the execution of the man who killed their daughter.

Cal Brown is scheduled to die by lethal injection at midnight Friday at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla.

Brown was sentenced to death after killing Holly Washa inside a motel room back in 1991. He was scheduled to die by lethal injection last March, but the state Supreme Court stepped in and issued a stay.

That stay has been lifted since. And family and friends of the victim say it's time for Brown to go away for good.

Kim Bowen can't forget that day 18 years ago when she learned her friend had been killed.

"No words...just crying and screaming," she said.

The grief came rushing back last March when hours before Brown was scheduled to be executed, the high court issued a stay.

"It's the worst. It's the worst," said Bowen.

And now Bowen is getting ready to face that hurt and frustration all over again this Friday when Brown is again scheduled to die by lethal injection.

"It's time to just be done, and for Cal to be put away. And that's the kind of closure we're going to get," she said.

Brown was convicted of raping and torturing Washa for more than 30 hours inside a Seatac motel room. Police later found her body in the trunk of a car.

Right before his first scheduled execution, Brown apologized for what he did.

"I cannot begin to tell you how sorry and ashamed I am for what I have done," he said.

Then the Supreme Court issued a stay of execution to review the constitutionality of the state's lethal injection policy. This past July, the court lifted that stay, and Bowen hopes justice will finally be served for her friend.

"She had the most beautiful skin - that milky skin - and blue, blue eyes," said Bowen. "We will cry for Holly and in her memory."

Bowen plans to be in Walla Walla with a message for Brown: "I think I would just call him a coward and spit on him and walk away. I hate him."

Last year, Brown's execution was stayed after his lawyers argued the way the state performs lethal injections is cruel and unusual.

It used to be that the state used three different sets of injections to kill an inmate. But because now only one injection is used, the state lifted the stay.

Brown could become the first person since 2001 to be executed here in Washington state.