SALEM -- A Marion County judge has signed a death warrant for the Dec. 6 execution of the Oregon inmate Gary Haugen.
He was convicted March 16, 2007 on two counts of aggravated murder and has waived all appeals of his death sentence.
Judge Joseph C. Guimond signed the warrant Friday afternoon. He had received the death warrant earlier in the day from Marion County deputy district attorneys Donald Abar and Douglas Hanson.
Haugen's requests for dropping appeals had gone through several court reviews in recent months.
Those opposed to his execution had questioned whether Haugen had gone through proper competency tests. They questioned whether, based on past behavior, Haugen was able to make a sound decision on his own.
Last July 14, he had fired his attorneys for blocking his execution.
Haugen was convicted of the May 21, 1981 beating death of Mary Archer, a former girlfriend's mother. His was sentenced to life in prison on Nov. 6, 1981.
On Sept. 2, 2003, he and another inmate beat and stabbed another inmate to death in the band activities room of the Oregon State Penitentiary. He was convicted of aggravated murder on May 3, 2007 and sentenced to death.
The corrections department outlined the injection drugs in a prepared statement.
Oregon statutes and administrative rules call for him to be injected with pentobarbital, which causes unconsciousness, then death, pancuronium bromide to stop breathing and potassium chloride to stop the heart.
In two previous lethal injection deaths in the 1990s, the department used sodium thiopental instead of Pentobarbital. In late 2010, the maker of that drug stopped its manufacture.
The drugs for the death were purchased last February when Haugen said he wished to waive his rights to appeal, officials said. The drugs cost about $18,000.
Corrections officials led reporters on tour of the death chamber and outlined the steps they hope shows a commitment to as professional and humane an execution as possible.
