Oregon

History of the Death Penalty

The death penal­ty was first adopt­ed in Oregon in 1864. Hangings were car­ried out pub­licly until 1903, when the Oregon Legislature amend­ed the law and moved exe­cu­tions to the Oregon State Penitentiary.

Timeline

1864 — Capital pun­ish­ment is first adopt­ed in Oregon.

1903 — The Oregon Legislature amends state law to move exe­cu­tions out of the pub­lic and into the Oregon State Penitentiary.

1904 — H.D. Egbert is hanged at the Oregon State Penitentiary, becom­ing the first man to be exe­cut­ed under the law.

1914 — Oregon abol­ish­es the death penal­ty by a popular vote.

1920 — Oregon vot­ers rein­state the death penalty.

1939 — LeRoy Hershel McCarthy becomes the first man to be exe­cut­ed in Oregon’s gas cham­ber. 17 men are exe­cut­ed by lethal gas fol­low­ing Mr. McCathy’ execution.

1964 — The last exe­cu­tion in Oregon takes place when 17-year-old John Anthony Soto, the youngest per­son in Oregon’s death row his­to­ry, is executed.

1964 — Oregon vot­ers repeal cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment for the second time.

1978 — The death penal­ty is rein­stat­ed by pop­u­lar vote for the second time.

1981 — The Oregon Supreme Court declares the death penalty unconstitutional.

1984 — Oregon vot­ers rein­state cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment despite the Supreme Court’s previous repeal.

1996 — Douglas Franklin Wright becomes the first per­son exe­cut­ed by lethal injec­tion in Oregon.

2011 — Two death row pris­on­ers’ sen­tences are vacat­ed due to con­cerns regard­ing their mental competency.

2011- Governor John Kitzhaber declares a mora­to­ri­um on executions.

2013 — The Oregon Supreme Court rules that Governor Kitzhaber may con­tin­ue his mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions dur­ing his term in office.

2015 — Governor Kate Brown announced that she ill uphold Governor Kitzhaber’s mora­to­ri­um through­out her incumbency.

2019 — A bill pass­es the state sen­ate stip­u­lat­ing that pros­e­cu­tors may only pur­sue the death penal­ty for acts of ter­ror­ism in which at least two peo­ple are killed, the mur­der of a child younger than age 14, and mur­der com­mit­ted in prison by a per­son already incar­cer­at­ed for a pre­vi­ous mur­der con­vic­tion. The bill also elim­i­nates spec­u­la­tion about a defen­dan­t’s future dan­ger­ous­ness from a jury’s cap­i­tal sentencing deliberations.

2020 — Oregon clos­es its death row and inte­grates most of its death row pris­on­ers into the gen­er­al prison population.

2022 — Governor Kate Brown grants clemen­cy to all 17 peo­ple on Oregon’s death row. Their sen­tences are com­mut­ed to life with­out the pos­si­bil­i­tyy of parole.

Milestones in Abolition/​Reinstatement

Oregon abol­ished the death penal­ty in 1914 via pop­u­lar vote. It was rein­stat­ed again in 1920, also by pop­u­lar vote. In 1964, Oregon vot­ers once again vot­ed to repeal the death penal­ty. On Nov. 5, 1964, two days after Oregon vot­ers abol­ished the death penal­ty for the sec­ond time, then-Gov. Mark O. Hatfield com­mut­ed the death sen­tences of the three inmates on death row, includ­ing the only woman ever to be sen­tenced to death in Oregon.

The death penal­ty was rein­stat­ed by pop­u­lar vote in 1978.

In 1981, the Oregon Supreme Court declared the death penal­ty uncon­sti­tu­tion­al, but Oregon vot­ers rein­stat­ed cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in 1984.

On November 22, 2011, Governor John Kitzhaber declared a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions, say­ing ​“I refuse to be a part of this com­pro­mised and inequitable sys­tem any longer; and I will not allow fur­ther exe­cu­tions while I am Governor.” Both of Oregon’s post-Furman exe­cu­tions hap­pened dur­ing Kitzhaber’s first admin­is­tra­tion as gov­er­nor. Both inmates dropped their appeals and ​“vol­un­teered” for exe­cu­tion. Of those two exe­cu­tions, Kitzhaber said, ​“I was torn between my per­son­al con­vic­tions about the moral­i­ty of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and my oath to uphold the Oregon con­sti­tu­tion. They were the most ago­niz­ing and dif­fi­cult deci­sions I have made as Governor and I have revis­it­ed and ques­tioned them over and over again dur­ing the past 14 years.”

Saying “[t]here needs to be a broad­er dis­cus­sion about fix­ing the sys­tem,” Governor Kate Brown announced on February 18, 2015, that she would con­tin­ue the state’s mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions. Brown said “[u]ntil that dis­cus­sion, I will be uphold­ing the mora­to­ri­um imposed by Gov. Kitzhaber.”

On December 13, 2022, Governor Kate Brown announced that she would grant clemen­cy to all 17 peo­ple on Oregon’s death row. Their sen­tences were com­mut­ed to life without parole.

Other Interesting Facts

Oregon exe­cut­ed two broth­ers (George and Charles Humphery) on the same day in 1913.

Resources

• Department of Corrections
• Oregonians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
• Oregon History of the Death Penalty
• Oregon District Attorneys Association
• Oregon Capital Resource Center
• Office of Public Defense Services
• Crime Victim and Survivors Services

Oregon Execution Totals Since 1976