SALEM, Ore. — An Oregon death row inmate told a judge Friday that his lawyers' attempts to delay his execution were "despicable," and that he sided with prosecutors asking to schedule his lethal injection this summer.
Lawyers for Gary Haugen, 49, asked for a 90-day delay so they could hire experts to evaluate whether Haugen is competent to waive his remaining appeals.
But Haugen adamantly told Marion County Circuit Court Judge Joseph Guimond that he had decided not to fight any longer.
"I've lost all trust in lawyers, in defense counsel," Haugen said. "It's like flat-lined in the dirt, period. It's like they've got an agenda and they're always trying to postpone, postpone, postpone and deny my will."
The judge scheduled a May 18 hearing to consider issuing a death warrant authorizing Oregon's first execution in 14 years. Prosecutors are seeking a July 28 date for death by lethal injection.
Shackled and wearing a red prison jumpsuit and a ponytail, Haugen spoke confidently to the judge, citing case law and referring to his three-month trial in 2007.
"They've had their chance," Haugen said of his lawyers. "How many chances do they get? I think the court more than has the tools to be able to make that decision."
At the death warrant hearing next week, the judge will ask Haugen a series of questions to determine if he's competent to make an informed decision about his future appeals.
Defense lawyers Andy Simrin and Keith Goody said the judge would need the advice of professionals to make a competency determination.
"I can't imagine how a judge could make a decision in the dark," Goody said.
An expert hired by the defense lawyers determined Haugen suffers from fetal alcohol syndrome and attention deficit disorder. Haugen sustained numerous severe head injuries that resulted in unconsciousness, and his thought processes are "slow and sluggish," neuropsychologist Muriel Lezak determined, according to court documents filed Thursday.
The lawyers also said they didn't have access to Haugen's trial records until Friday, in part because the Oregon State Penitentiary was on lockdown for much of April and the attorneys couldn't get their client's approval to access his records.
As a result, they haven't had time to adequately determine their client's likelihood of success on appeal, so Haugen couldn't possibly have all the information he should have before deciding to waive his appeals, they said.
The judge, however, said only Haugen has a right to request a delay in a hearing for a death warrant, and the inmate refused to make the request.
"I respect your wish to have this matter addressed one way or another," the judge told the inmate.
Haugen has written to court officials since 2008 asking to drop his appeals, complaining about a "costly broken system" and a criminal justice process he calls arbitrary and vindictive. He wrote a letter last month saying he'd changed his mind and would like to appeal then followed up days later to renew his plea for a death warrant.
Haugen and another prisoner were sentenced to death in 2007 for the murder four years earlier of David Polin, a fellow inmate who suffered 84 stab wounds and a crushed skull. Haugen and accomplice Jason Brumwell killed Polin because they mistakenly believed he snitched to corrections officers about their use of drugs, authorities said.
Polin's widow, Clarinda Polin Perez, said she didn't expect Haugen's execution for at least another decade, and it's hard for her to say if his death would be justice.
"If he wants to take his life and meet his real judge, let him be judged," she said.
At the time of Polin's murder, Haugen was in prison for the 1981 murder of his ex-girlfriend's mother in Portland.
The Department of Corrections has obtained three drugs necessary for a lethal injection at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem. Executioners will substitute pentobarbital in place of sodium thiopental, which was used in previous Oregon executions.
That drug has been in short supply and delayed executions in some states since its only U.S. manufacturer stopped making it. Sodium thiopental and pentobarbital are fast-acting barbiturates that in massive intravenous doses will quickly stop a person's breathing and cause death within minutes.
Oregon's last execution was in 1997. The state has executed two inmates since voters reinstated the death penalty in 1984, both of whom waived their appeals. Including Haugen, Oregon has 35 men and one woman on death row.
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