He did not commute the death sentence; he just said it would not happen on his watch.
Gov. John Kitzhaber stops executions in Oregon, calls system 'compromised and inequitable'
Posted Nov. 22, 2011
Gov. John Kitzhaber announced today he will not allow the execution of Gary Haugen -- or any death row inmate -- to take place while he is in office.
The death penalty is morally wrong and unjustly administered, Kitzhaber said.
Don Ryan/AP
Convicted killer Gary Haugen, pictured leaving Marion County Courthouse after a hearing , had been sentenced to death on Dec. 6.
SALEM, Ore. — Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber on Tuesday imposed a moratorium on the death penalty for the remainder of his term, saying he’s morally opposed to capital punishment and has long regretted allowing two men to be executed in the 1990s.
Kitzhaber’s decision gives a temporary reprieve to a twice-convicted murderer who was scheduled to die by lethal injection in two weeks, along with 36 others on death row. It makes Oregon the fifth state to halt executions since 2007.
“I do not believe those executions made us safer. Certainly I don’t believe they made us nobler as a society,” Kitzhaber said. “And I simply cannot participate once again in something I believe to be morally wrong.”
I have to weigh in on this one as I am opposed to the death penalty, like the governor, I don’t believe that it makes us any safer. It is applied unequally and oftentimes minorities are subjected to the death penalty as opposed to white Anglo counterparts committing far more serious crimes.
I also think it rather puzzling of our society to support the death penalty and then take a stand against abortion even when the life of the mother is in jeopardy or in case of incest and rape. I have never been able to reconcile these two issues in our society and I find it terribly hypocritical
SOURCES: http://governor.oregon.gov/
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