Capital Punishment In Oregon
Capital punishment is legal in the U.S. state of Oregon. The first execution under the territorial government was in 1851. Capital punishment was made explicitly legal by statute in 1864, and executions have been carried out exclusively at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem since 1904. The death penalty was outlawed between 1914 and 1920, again between 1964 and 1978, and then again between a 1981 Oregon Supreme Court ruling and a 1984 ballot measure.
Since 1904, about 60 individuals have been executed in Oregon. Thirty-seven people are on Oregon's death row as of 22 November 2011. The current method of execution in Oregon is lethal injection. Aggravated murder is the only crime subject to the penalty of death under Oregon law.
Read more about Capital Punishment In Oregon: History, Process, Method, Capital Offenses, List of Individuals Executed Since 1978, New Developments
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“Capital punishment kills immediately, whereas lifetime imprisonment does so slowly. Which executioner is more humane? The one who kills you in a few minutes, or the one who wrests your life from you in the course of many years?”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
“Many of us do not believe in capital punishment, because thus society takes from a man what society cannot give.”
—Katharine Fullerton Gerould (1879–1944)
“Confession is always weakness. The grave soul keeps its own secrets, and takes its own punishment in silence.”
—Dorothy Dix (1861–1951)
“The Oregon [matter] and the annexation of Texas are now all- important to the security and future peace and prosperity of our union, and I hope there are a sufficient number of pure American democrats to carry into effect the annexation of Texas and [extension of] our laws over Oregon. No temporizing policy or all is lost.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)