Reprieve

Now that the Oregon Supreme Court upheld his reprieve of Gary Haugen’s death sentence, Gov. John Kitzhaber and others say they can proceed with a broader but politically difficult effort to abolish Oregon’s death penalty.

If Gary Haugen prevails in his bid to be executed, the Oregon Supreme Court would essentially be vesting the death-row inmate with authority greater than the constitutional power given to the governor, a lawyer for Gov. John Kitzhaber warned Thursday.

Death row inmate Gary Haugen won a legal battle Friday against Gov. John Kitzhaber when a judge ruled he could reject the governor's reprieve of his execution and move forward in his efforts to die by lethal injection. The opinion by Senior Judge Timothy P. Alexander is expected to initiate new adversarial proceedings between the prisoner who volunteered to die and the governor who had a change of heart about capital punishment.

Listening to death row inmate Gary Haugen and Gov. John Kitzhaber expound on Oregon's death penalty, it sounds almost as though all this is between them, the two-time murderer ready to accept his punishment, and the three-term governor who can't bring himself to allow another execution under his watch. There is someone else involved here: You. What do you think? Is Oregon's death penalty system truly "broken," "inequitable" and "compromised," as Kitzhaber insisted Tuesday while announcing his decision to issue a temporary reprieve and block the scheduled Dec. 6 execution of Haugen?