Capital punishment is almost unheard of in Oregon. The state has executed two men in the past half century.
Frank Thompson oversaw both of those executions in the 1990s, when he was superintendent of the Oregon Department of Corrections. The implementation of the death penalty was so rare in the state that Thompson had to rewrite the manual on what the procedure should be.
That process ultimately challenged his belief in the death penalty. Frank Thompson is the subject of this weeks episode of Criminal.
Criminal is recorded at WUNC.
