Capital punishment is legal in the U.S. state of Oregon. The first execution under the territorial government was in 1851. Capital punishment was made explicitly legal by statute in 1864, and executions have been carried out exclusively at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem since 1904. The death penalty was outlawed between 1914 and 1920, again between 1964 and 1978, and then again between a 1981 Oregon Supreme Court ruling and a 1984 ballot measure.
Since 1904, about 60 individuals have been executed in Oregon. Thirty-seven people are on Oregon's death row as of 22 November 2011.[1][2] The current method of execution in Oregon is lethal injection. Aggravated murder is the only crime subject to the penalty of death under Oregon law.
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The Oregon Constitution originally had no provision for a death penalty. A statute was enacted in 1864 allowing for the death penalty in cases of first degree murder. Authority to conduct executions was initially granted to local sheriffs, but in 1903, the Oregon Legislative Assembly passed a law requiring all executions to be conducted at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem.[3]
Oregon voters amended the Constitution in 1914, to repeal the death penalty, by a margin of 50.04%. The repeal was an initiative of Governor Oswald West.[4] The death penalty was restored, again by constitutional amendment, in 1920.[3]
Initially, all executions were performed by hanging; lethal gas was adopted as the method after 1931.[3]
Voters outlawed the death penalty in the general election of 1964, with 60% of the vote. Governor Mark Hatfield commuted the sentences of three death row inmates two days later.[3]
Voters reenacted the death penalty in the general election of 1978, by statute; Measure 8 required the death penalty in certain murder cases. Measure 8 was overturned by the Oregon Supreme Court in 1981, on the grounds that it denied defendants the right to be tried by a jury of their peers.[3]
In 1984, Measure 6 amended the Constitution to once more make the death penalty legal. Measure 7, a statutory measure passed in the same year,[5] required a separate sentencing hearing before a jury in cases of aggravated murder.[3]
In 1988, the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Penry v. Lynaugh affected the Oregon death penalty, because Oregon's law is based on the Texas law involved in the case. 17 Oregon cases were remanded for resentencing following Penry; eight convicts were re-sentenced to death.[3]
In 2000, the Benetton Group featured several inmates on Oregon's death row in a controversial, anti-death penalty ad campaign. Cesar Barone, Conan Wayne Hale, Jesse Caleb Compton, and Alberto Reyes Camarena were featured in the ad.[6]
Between 1904 and 1994, 115 people were sentenced to death in Oregon, and 58 of those were executed.[3]
The jury decides the sentence in Oregon for the crime of aggravated murder, as proscribed by ORS 163.105.[3] Death, imprisonment without parole and life imprisonment are allowed as sentences. Life imprisonment must have a minimum period where the defendant is not allowed parole of thirty years. Mitigating and aggravating factors are to be considered during sentencing.
Mitigating Factors:
The Governor of Oregon has sole authority over clemency, including capital cases.
As in any other state, people who are under 18 at the time of commission of the capital crime [7] or mentally retarded[8] are constitutionally precluded from being executed.
The first death sentence carried out under the territorial government came on 18 April 1851, when William Kendall was hanged in Salem.[9] Kendall's sentence was handed down by judge William Strong of the Oregon Supreme Court.[9] Hangings were conducted by the local sheriff until 1905 when executions were moved to the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem.[9] Capital punishment in Oregon was performed by hanging until 1931. The gas chamber was used starting in 1939 and was performed until 1962. In 1964 death penalty laws in Oregon were repealed and they were restored in 1984. Currently the sole method is lethal injection. Death Row and executions are performed at the Oregon State Penitentiary.
Aggravated murder is the only crime subject to capital punishment in Oregon. The crime is defined as murder[10] "committed under, or accompanied by, any of the following circumstances"[10]:
Two people have been executed in Oregon after the reinstatement of capital punishment in 1978. Both waived their appeals and asked that the execution be carried out.
| Executed person | Date of execution | Murder victim(s) | Under Governor | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Douglas Franklin Wright | September 6, 1996 | William Marks and 2 others | John Kitzhaber |
| 2 | Harry Charles Moore | May 16, 1997 | Thomas Lauri and Barbara Cunningham | John Kitzhaber |
In November 2011, Oregon governor John Kitzhaber announced a moratorium on executions in Oregon, canceling a planned execution and ordering a review of the death penalty system in the state.[11]
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