Death-row inmate Gary Haugen loses legal bid to force his own execution

Oregon death-row inmate Gary Haugen's legal quest to force his own execution ended Tuesday when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to consider his case.

Without comment, the court denied his petition for writ of certiorari. The court turns down the vast majority of requests it receives each year to review a case.

The decision effectively guarantees that Haugen, twice-convicted of murder and sentenced to death by a jury in 2007, will continue to live on death row for the duration of Gov. John Kitzhaber's term in office. Haugen had waived his legal appeals in 2011 as a way of protesting the legal system, and demanded that the state carry out his death sentence.

But two weeks before Haugen's planned execution date, Kitzhaber issued a reprieve and declared he would not allow any executions as long as he is governor. Kitzhaber criticized capital punishment as "morally wrong" and argued that Oregon's system "fails to meet basic standards of justice."

Haugen sued Kitzhaber. The late Senior Judge Timothy Alexander in 2012 agreed with Haugen's arguments that the inmate had to accept Kitzhaber's reprieve in order for it to be effective. But on appeal, the Oregon Supreme Court overturned that decision, finding that the governor's action needed no such acceptance.

Haugen's pro-bono lawyer, Harrison Latto, then sought review by the U.S. Supreme Court of the one federal claim raised in his argument.

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Source: The Oregonian, January 21, 2014