Prisoner on Death Row in Oregon Wants to Be Executed Already

September 28th, 2011

Not, not from the Onion.

Seeking to end the lengthy process of appeals and delays that have postponed his execution–recently set for Aug. 16 before the latest delay–the 49-year-old convicted killer is asking a judge in Salem to clear the state to proceed with the lethal injection that will end his life.

“This is my free will. This is my constitutional right. We are at a point where I get, as I said before, the right to choose,” Haugen told the court earlier this year. He compared the lawyers who were trying to save his life to “tree huggers” who leave a tree to die of disease in a forest rather than allow it to be cut down by loggers.

“It’s probably breaking so many hearts to have to come in here over and over and over when we need to take care of this. You know, we need to put this to sleep,” he said. “That’s probably the wrong expression.”