It’s nearly impossible to die by state execution in Oregon. After September 29, it will become even less likely.
First, a person will need to commit a crime that meets Oregon’s recently revised definition of aggravated murder. That means someone will need to be accused of either committing a murder that is an act of terrorism; intentionally killing a person younger than 14; intentionally killing a police or corrections officer; killing a fellow prison inmate; or—if they’ve already been convicted of aggravated murder—committing another murder.
Then the person’s case will have to go to trial, cycle through sentencing and appeals proceedings—a process that can drag on for decades—and come out the other side sitting on death row. But that’s not the end of the line. For the execution to be carried out, the governor of Oregon will need to lift the state moratorium on executions, which has been in place since 2011. In that case, the Oregon Department of Corrections (DOC) would need to restock its lethal injection supply (it hasn’t bothered carrying it since the moratorium went into effect), and likely train a crew of employees who have never before participated in an execution.
If all those things happen, then a person could be put to death in a state-sanctioned execution in Oregon. It would be the first time a person has been executed by the state since 1997.
The odds of this happening anytime soon are slim, especially after Oregon’s Senate Bill 1013 becomes law on September 29. SB 1013, passed in the 2019 legislative session, narrows the definition of aggravated murder—the only crime punishable by death in Oregon—to further lessen the chances of a person dying in a state execution. Proponents say the new law will help limit the use of a policy that is a fiscal, logistical, and emotional strain on Oregon’s criminal justice system.
“You have defense attorneys, judges, prosecutors, corrections officers, victims’ family members all going through this charade of the death penalty when everybody knows it’s not going to be implemented,” says Bobbin Singh, the executive director of the Oregon Justice Resource Center. Singh is among the most vocal supporters of SB 1013.
