Judge orders execution of Oregon death row inmate

A Marion County judge has authorized the Aug. 16 execution of Oregon death row inmate Gary Haugen, clearing the way for the first execution in this state in 14 years.

Haugen, 49, essentially volunteered to die by lethal injection, waiving all further appeals of his death sentence.

Barring a change of heart, he will be the first Oregon inmate put to death since double-killer Harry Moore of Salem was executed in 1997.

After 30 years in prison, Haugen said he doesn’t want to languish on death row or “rub elbows” with certain other condemned killers he despises.

“The bottom line is, I feel like a dinosaur in a world that is evolving around me,” he said.

Judge Joseph Guimond issued Haugen’s death warrant after a sometimes-contentious court hearing on Wednesday in which Haugen dumped his 2 attorneys and blasted their attempts to delay his execution.

Haugen, 49, described his decision to drop all his appeals as a self-sacrifice, intended to rivet attention on “the farce” of taxpayer dollars spent on death row and to protest the “hypocricy” of the justice system.

While more than 30 killers await execution on death row at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem, Haugen complained that there are serial killers — “mutants,” he called them — serving life sentences within the general inmate population at the same prison.

“I am willing to sacrifice myself, fall on my sword, if you will” to protest such inequities, he said.

Haugen and another inmate, Jason Brumwell, landed on death row in 2007, when both were convicted of killing a third inmate at the state penitentiary in Salem.

At a joint trial in Marion County Circuit Court, Haugen and Brumwell were convicted by a jury for the 2003 slaying of inmate David Polin.

Polin suffered a crushed skull and 84 stab wounds.

Prosecutors maintained that Haugen and Brumwell killed Polin because they mistakenly believed he snitched to prison officials about their use of drugs.

At the time of Polin’s murder, Haugen was in prison for the 1981 murder of his ex-girlfriend’s mother in Portland.

During sometimes-testy court proceedings on Wednesday, Haugen fired his court-appointed attorneys, Andy Simrin and Keith Goody. He complained that they had been acting against his wishes by filing legal motions and taking other steps to delay his execution.

“This is my time to choose,” Haugen said. He added: “They’re trying to take that away from me, your honor, and it’s damaging my spirit."

At Haugen’s behest, Simrin and Goody were formally removed as his attorneys. Haugen now represents himself in all legal matters.

In another unusual development, Haugen came to the defense of the judge who signed his death warrant.

Haugen heaped praise on Guimond after Simrin and Goody filed a motion on Tuesday seeking to recuse, or remove, the judge from the death warrant case. The motion was denied by Judge Thomas Hart, and Guimond then entered the courtroom to preside over the death warrant hearing.

Source: Statesman Journal, May 18, 2011

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