Oregon court keeps Gregory Bowen on death row

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - The Oregon Supreme Court has affirmed the sentence of an inmate on death row for more than a decade.

Gregory Allen Bowen fatally shot 76-year-old Don Christiansen in December 2001 and then stole guns from the man’s home.

A Curry County jury decided in 2003 that Bowen should be executed. After a series of challenges and after once sending the sentence back to the trial court, the Supreme Court ruled Friday that the trial judge had gotten the sentencing handled correctly.

Only two inmates have been executed since Oregon voters reinstated capital punishment in 1984. A majority of death row inmates have been there more than a decade.