Ore. lawmakers to consider death penalty repeal

KOIN:

By JONATHAN J. COOPERAssociated Press    SALEM, Ore. (AP) -- Oregon's complicated relationship with capital punishment takes center stage this week as a House committee takes up Gov. John Kitzhaber's plea for a public vote on repealing the death penalty.    On Tuesday, the House Judiciary Committee will hear public testimony on a measure that would ask voters in 2014 whether to amend the state constitution with a death-penalty ban.    The measure doesn't seem likely to go very far, especially after voters in California rejected a similar measure last year.    House Speaker Tina Kotek said she wants to see more evidence the measure could pass in Oregon, although she stopped short of ruling out a 2014 vote.    Democratic Rep. Mitch Greenlick of Portland sponsored the measure. He said he believes it would pass and he'd like to see the measure go forward.Note: Oregon reenacted the death penalty in December 1978. Since then, two people have been executed, according to data analyzed by the Death Penalty Information Center. Thirty-seven people wait on death row, including one woman. Oregon's current method of execution is lethal injection, according to information center data.Washington state also has the death penalty, either by injection or hanging. The center reports that one person has been found innocent after being sentenced to death row.-- Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.Related resource:States with and without the death penalty

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