An Oregon governor, who called capital punishment "a relic of the barbarous mediaeval [sic] ages of man," nevertheless refused to halt the hanging of a Grants Pass man convicted of murder.
In July 1911, Mike Morgan signed a confession saying he accidently killed John York during a drunken brawl at a camp on the south bank of the Rogue River in Grants Pass. Searchers found York's body in the river near the camp, and authorities caught up a few days later in Glendale with Morgan and York’s horses and wagon.
A trial jury found Morgan guilty and sentenced him to die on Jan. 5, 1912.
The hanging was postponed while Gov. Oswald West campaigned in favor of a measure to abolish the death penalty. When the measure failed by 60 percent, Morgan's attorney pleaded with the governor to stop his client's hanging, but was surprised when West said a reprieve would be a setback to his campaign.
Morgan went to the gallows on Dec. 13, 1912. His was among a spate of hangings Gov. West used to demonstrate the barbarity of capital punishment. West finally convinced voters to abolish it in 1914, only to be overturned in 1920.
Sources: Long, William R. "Death Penalty," The Oregon Encyclopedia. Ed. Marianne Keddington-Lang and Amy Platt. Portland State University/Oregon Historical Society, 2008. Web. 30 June 2015. http://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/;
