Governor of Oregon Announces Moratorium on Death Penalty

On 22 November 2011, the Governor of the US state Oregon John Kitzhauber announced a moratorium on the use of the death penalty in that state. Governor Kitzhauber stayed the execution of death row inmate Gary Haugen and said that he will do the same with any other executions, which might have been scheduled during his term as Governor. He characterised the death penalty system as compromised and inequitable.

Oregon has executed two people since its voters approved the death penalty in 1984. The last execution took place in 1997.“I do not believe that those executions [carried out since 1984] made us safer; certainly I don’t believe they made us more noble as a society. And I simply cannot participate once again in something I believe to be morally wrong“, Kitzhauber said in his strong statement. Currently, there are 37 inmates on death row.Read the statement by the ICDP on the announcement of a moratorium in Oregon.

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