On February 26, the House Judiciary Committee in Oregon held a hear­ing on repeal­ing the death penal­ty. Among those tes­ti­fy­ing was Frank Thompson, a for­mer super­in­ten­dent of the Oregon State Penitentiary, who over­saw the state’s last two exe­cu­tions. Thompson told the com­mit­tee the death penal­ty does not deter crime, fails to make the pub­lic safer, and places prison work­ers in an unten­able posi­tion: ​“Asking decent men and women to par­tic­i­pate in the name of a failed pub­lic pol­i­cy that takes human life is inde­fen­si­ble and ris­es to a lev­el of immoral­i­ty.” Also rec­om­mend­ing repeal was Aba Gayle (pic­tured), an Oregon res­i­dent whose daugh­ter was mur­dered in 1980. Gayle tes­ti­fied that those in her sit­u­a­tion will nev­er expe­ri­ence clo­sure and exe­cut­ing the killer would not hon­or her daughter’s life. She said, ​“Do not tar­nish the mem­o­ry of my beau­ti­ful child with anoth­er sense­less killing.” The bill under con­sid­er­a­tion was intro­duced after Governor John Kitzhaber announced that no exe­cu­tions would occur dur­ing his tenure because the death penal­ty was a failed sys­tem. In a let­ter to the House Judiciary Committee, Kitzhaber expressed con­cerns about ​“evi­dence of wrong­ful con­vic­tions, the unequal appli­ca­tion of the law and the expense of the process.” He con­clud­ed, ​“It is time for Oregon to con­sid­er a dif­fer­ent approach.” Read full text of the Governor’s let­ter.

Only one wit­ness spoke in favor of the death penal­ty – Terri Hakim, whose hus­band was killed in 2008 while serv­ing as a police offi­cer. She said repeal­ing the death penal­ty ​“is only enabling pris­on­ers with more rights” than their victims. 

(H. Jung, ​“Oregon death penal­ty ​‘inde­fen­si­ble,’ says man who last car­ried it out,” Oregonian, February 26, 2013). See Victims, New Voices, and Recent Legislative Activity.

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