SALEM, Ore. (AP) — A judge ordered the first execution in Oregon in 14 years by issuing a death warrant on Wednesday for a twice-convicted killer.
The execution by lethal injection for Gary Haugen, 49, was scheduled August 16 at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem.
Marion County Circuit Judge Joseph Guimond ordered the execution after finding Haugen competent to disregard advice from his lawyers and waive his remaining appeals.
The judge last week rejected an argument from Haugen's attorneys that the inmate may not be qualified to waive appeals. His attorneys also said a defense expert had determined Haugen suffers from fetal alcohol syndrome and attention deficit disorder.
Haugen had written to court officials since 2008 asking to drop his appeals, complaining about a "costly broken system" and a criminal justice process he called arbitrary and vindictive.
Haugen and another prisoner were sentenced to death in 2007 for the murder four years earlier of David Polin, a fellow inmate who suffered 84 stab wounds and a crushed skull.
At the time of Polin's murder, Haugen was in prison for the 1981 murder of his ex-girlfriend's mother in Portland.
Three drugs necessary for a lethal injection have been obtained by the state Department of Corrections but pentobarbital will be substituted for sodium thiopental, which has been in short supply and delayed executions in some states since its only U.S. manufacturer stopped making it.
Sodium thiopental and pentobarbital are fast-acting barbiturates that can quickly stop a person's breathing and cause death within minutes.
Oregon's last execution was in 1997. The state has executed two inmates since voters reinstated the death penalty in 1984, and both had waived their appeals. Oregon has 35 men and one woman on death row, including Haugen.
http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/J...#ixzz1MjPMYm7Y
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