Oregon Places Moratorium on Executions

Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber, a Democrat, said he will allow no more executions to take place in the state, placing a moratorium on capital punishment on Tuesday.
Oregon Places Moratorium on Executions
11/23/2011
Updated:
11/24/2011

Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber, a Democrat, said he will allow no more executions to take place in the state, placing a moratorium on capital punishment on Tuesday.

In the past 49 years, two executions were carried out in Oregon, both under Kitzhaber’s administration in 1996 and 1997.

“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,” he said in a statement.

“I do not believe that those executions made us safer; and certainly they did not make us nobler as a society. And I simply cannot participate once again in something I believe to be morally wrong,” he added.

The governor said the state will be able to find a “better solution” to capital punishment, calling on the state legislature to enact reforms before the 2013 election season.

Kitzhaber said that Oregon has a “long and turbulent history with capital punishment” and the practice was banned and reinstated several times during the state’s history.