SALEM -- A doctor hired by lawyers for a death row inmate who wants to waive his appeals says the inmate suffers from fetal alcohol syndrome and attention deficit disorder.
Court documents indicate Dr. Muriel Lezak says that 49-year-old inmate Gary Haugen's thought processes are "slow and sluggish."
Attorneys Andy Simrin and Keith Goody say in a document filed Thursday that the doctor's analysis "raises serious doubts" about Haugen's competency to waive his remaining appeals and proceed with a lethal injection.
The lawyers also say they didn't have access to Haugen's trial records until very recently and haven't had time to adequately determine their client's likelihood of succeeding with an appeal.
The attorneys are asking a Marion County Circuit Court judge to allow more examination of Haugen.
Haugen began requesting that his appeals be waived as far back as September 2008, and in a series of letters that follow he expresses a distrust and disdain for the criminal justice system.
A hearing is scheduled for Friday in Marion County Circuit Court to consider the state's request for a death warrant, potentially paving the way for Oregon to hold its first execution in 14 years this summer.
Haugen suggests in a hand-written letter dated Jan. 29, 2011, that he will ultimately be executed, and he says the courts needlessly drag out decisions while wasting taxpayer money.
"Let's do the math," he writes in the letter addressed to the state court administrator. "Cost to the tax payers v. arbitrary, vindictive death penalty scheme. Sacrifice of a life to bring attention to a costly broken system via media/public opinion."
Prosecutors are asking Judge Joseph Guimond to issue a death warrant and schedule an execution on July 28. Guimond will consider whether Haugen is competent to waive his appeals against the advice of his lawyers. If he continues with his case, the next step would be a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Haugen's attorneys, Andy Simrin and Keith Goody, declined to discuss their client's concerns about the criminal justice system or whether they would oppose his request to waive appeals, citing attorney-client privilege.
"A defendant has a constitutional right to be represented by counsel, but he also has the right to waive his right to counsel if he can competently do that," Simrin said. "I'm not speculating whether that will happen one way or another at this hearing."
Haugen was sentenced to death for the 2003 killing of fellow inmate David Polin, a Hillsboro man serving time for attempted murder and drug convictions. Haugen was convicted along with another inmate in the fatal attack, in which Polin suffered a crushed skull and 84 stab wounds. Authorities said the assailants mistakenly believed that Polin informed corrections officers that they were using drugs.
At the time of Polin's death, Haugen was serving time for the 1981 murder of his former girlfriend's mother in northeast Portland. The Department of Corrections has obtained three drugs necessary for a lethal injection at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem, agency spokeswoman Jeanine Hohn said. Executioners will substitute pentobarbital in place of the sodium thiopental used in previous Oregon executions, Hohn said.
The drug has been in short supply since its only U.S.
manufacturer stopped making it, delaying executions in some states. Both sodium thiopental and pentobarbital are fast-acting barbiturates that in massive intravenous doses will quickly stop a person's breathing and cause death in 10 to 15 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.
Deputy District Attorney Courtland Geyer declined to comment on Haugen's case.
