On Nov. 22, Governor John Kitzhaber issued a temporary halt to the use of capital punishment in Oregon. This decision comes just two weeks before the scheduled execution of Oregon State Penitentiary death row inmate Gary Haugen.
In the last 49 years, only two people have been executed in Oregon. Both executions took place during Kitzhaber’s first administration, in 1996 and 1997, and both men had volunteered to die by waiving their remaining appeals.
In the Nov. 22 press release, Kitzhaber revealed that he wrestled with the morality of allowing the two executions to be carried out.
“They were the most agonizing and difficult decisions I have made as governor and I have revisited and questioned them over and over again during the past 14 years,” Kitzhaber stated.
The governor was forced to confront the issue yet again in the case of Haugen. Just like the two executions in the 1990s, Haugen is ready to die by lethal injection, refusing his right to continue the appeals process.
Haugen has been in Oregon prisons since the age of 19. He was found guilty of murdering his then-girlfriend’s mother, and was sent to death row in after he and an accomplice stabbed a fellow inmate to death in 2003.
When Haugen learned of the governor’s suspension of the death penalty, he initially praised Kitzhaber’s actions. In an interview with The Oregonian, Haugen stated that he appreciated Kitzhaber’s recognition of the broken legal system. However, Haugen later reversed his feelings and criticized Kitzhaber for being a “paper cowboy,” meaning the governor was too cowardly to “pull the trigger” on his execution.
Haugen said that he plans to pursue legal action to fight Kitzhaber’s policy and go through with his execution.
“Man, this is definitely cruel and unusual punishment,” Haugen said during a phone interview with the Statesman Journal. “You don’t bring a guy to the table twice and then just stop it.”
As expressed by Kitzhaberin his press release, the state of Oregon has a somewhat sordid history with the death penalty. First adopted in 1864, Oregon voters—through the constitutional amendment process—repealed the death penalty in 1914, but by 1920 voters had restored the state’s right to use capital punishment.
In 1964, Oregon voters again abolished the death penalty, until 1978 when ballot measure 8 was passed, which returned capital punishment to Oregon. However, the ballot measure was struck down by the Oregon Supreme Court in 1981.
The death penalty was officially reinstated in 1984 and remained in effect until Kitzhaber’s announcement on Nov. 22.
Between 1904 and 1994, 115 people have been sentenced to death in Oregon. According to the Oregon Department of Corrections, of those 115 inmates, 58 have been executed. The rest have either died in prison or had their sentences commuted, reduced or dismissed. Of the 58 people executed, 55 were white, three were black and all were men. The youngest person to be executed in Oregon was 17-year-old John Anthony Soto.
Kitzhaber is not alone in his decision to temporarily stop capital punishment. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, four other states have halted executions.
Oregon’s state constitution gives the governor the authority to commute the sentences of all 37 Oregon death row inmates, but Kitzhaber stated that he will not take this action. He hopes to encourage Oregon voters to reopen the discussion surrounding capital punishment. The halt on inmate execution will continue until Kitzhaber’s term ends in 2015.
Katherine Ginsburg, board of directors secretary for Oregonians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty commended Kitzhaber not only for halting executions, but also for acknowledging that it is not his place to determine how capital punishment policy will play out, leaving that decision in the hands of Oregon voters.
Both the OADP and Kitzhaber himself cited dysfunction within the death penalty system as a main reason for their opposition to it.
“Twenty-seven years after voters reinstated the death penalty, it is clear the system is broken,” Kitzhaber said.
Ginsburg claimed that one major flaw within the state’s capital punishment system is the cost. The OADP estimated that Oregon’s death penalty system costs the state $20 million per year. Ginsburg stated that the death penalty is not a more cost effective means to deal with dangerous inmates and prison overcrowding.
“As soon as the death penalty is on the board, costs go up,” Ginsburg said. Additional lawyers, trial proceedings and special death row security provisions all cost the state more money.
Additionally, due to Oregon’s lengthy appeals process, the only inmates that eventually reach execution are those that volunteer to do so. Ginsburg compared Oregon’s death penalty system to a very expensive assisted-suicide policy.
According to Ginsburg, another flaw in the system is the unequal and arbitrary sentencing procedures. She claimed that two defendants receive different sentences for a similar crime based upon their geographic location within the state. What is determined to be aggravated murder—the crime necessary to make the death penalty a possibility—seems to vary from county to county, with some counties having never issued a charge of aggravated murder.
Ginsburg claimed that the use of capital punishment shifts the focus to the perpetrator of the crime when the emphasis should be placed on support for the victims.
Ginsburg said that OADP hopes the government will abolish capital punishment and use some of the resources to fund early intervention programs that focus on reducing, not controlling, criminal activity.
“The original concept of justice is to make whole again,” Ginsburg explained. “We need to change how we as a community respond to violent crime.”