Oregon Governor Bans The Death Penalty

Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber on Tuesday banned the death penalty in his state for the duration of his term, the Associated Press reports.

Clearly emotional and fighting back tears at points during his address in Salem, the Democratic governor called the state’s death scheme "an expensive and unworkable system that fails to meet basic standards of justice." He announced he would issue a stay for 37 inmates, including 49-year-old Gary Haugen who had waived his appeals and was scheduled to be executed early next month.

Haugen was already serving life in prison for bludgeoning to death his ex-girlfriend’s mother, Mary Archer, when he was sentenced death by lethal injection for brutally killing fellow inmate Dave Polin. Polin was found dead with 84 stab wounds and a crushed skull. After waiving his appeals in protest of Oregon’s justice system, he was scheduled to die by lethal injection on Dec. 6.

Ard Pratt, Archer's first husband, blasted Kitzhaber for his decision to grant a stay. "It was almost over," he told the AP. "And then he changes it because he's a coward and doesn't want to do it.

Kitzhaber said his "heart goes out" to the families of Haugen’s victims, but the three-term governor said he has long regretted allowing two men to be executed in 1996 and 1997. The two inmates, like Haugen, had also waived their appeals. And although Kitzhaber did not stop their executions, the governor was once an emergency room doctor, and said his opposition to the death penalty was connected to his oath as a physician to "do no harm." Kitzhaber said Oregon voters didn’t reinstate the death penalty in 1984 to only put to death inmates who volunteer.

"The reality is that, in Oregon, our death sentence is essentially an extremely expensive life prison term," Kitzhaber said. "Far more expensive than the terms of others who are sentenced to life in prison without parole, rather than to death row."

Oregon officials said in an earlier AP story that $42,000, not including legal fees, had already been spent preparing for Haugen’s execution. Of that figure, $18,000 had been spent on the lethal drugs themselves.

Oregon voters have flip-flopped on the death penalty, outlawing it twice only to reinstate it twice. The Supreme Court has also outlawed it once. Voters legalized the death penalty in 1984.