PORTLAND, Ore., May 18 (UPI) -- A judge in Oregon has signed a death warrant for a death-row inmate who asked to waive appeals of his sentence and be executed.
Marion County Circuit Judge Joseph Guimond ruled inmate Gary Haugen, 49 is mentally competent to waive the appeals filed on his behalf, The Oregonian reported Wednesday.
Guimond set Aug. 16 as a date for Haugen's execution by lethal injection, the newspaper said.
If Haugen is executed, it will be the first in Oregon since 1997.
Guimond also allowed Haugen to fire his attorneys, but ordered they remain as legal advisers.
Haugen, convicted of two murders -- one in 1981 and one in 2003 while he was in prison -- had sent several letters to the court asking to drop legal challenges to his sentence.
Haugen has been on death row since 2007.
Under Oregon law, a death-penalty case is automatically reviewed by the Oregon Supreme Court, which affirmed Haugen's conviction and sentence April 19.
Read More
- Mississippi killer executed
- Ohio man executed for 1984 killings
- Oregon killer fights to speed execution
- Oregon inmate seeks end to death appeals
- Report: Prisons swap execution drugs
- Ohio executes jailhouse killer Carter
- Court temporarily blocks Texas execution
- Arizona executes man for 1989 killings
- Texas man who killed his child is executed
