Oregon’s oldest death row inmate asks governor for clemency
PORTLAND, Oregon — Lawyers for Oregon’s oldest death row inmate are making a last-ditch appeal to allow their client to spend his final days in hospice instead of in prison as he dies from severe chronic pulmonary disease.
The Oregonian reports that 67-year-old Mark Pinnell was one of the first to seek clemency after former Gov. John Kitzhaber declared a moratorium on executions in 2011.
Pinnell’s attorney sent a letter to Gov. Kate Brown’s office asking for her urgent review on Thursday, when Pinnell was moved off death row to the Oregon State Penitentiary’s infirmary. He was been on death row since 1988. His co-defendant was released in 2011 after 26 years in prison.
Brown’s administration said a clemency review could take up to six months, which Pinnell’s attorneys say he does not have.
