Oregon State Hospital Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". In 1976, photographer Mary Ellen Mark and writer Kay Folger Jacobs were commissioned by "The Pennsylvania Gazette" to do a story on the hospital. Mark and Folger spent over a month living in a security ward amongst female patients, chronicled in "Ward 81," a collection of photographs published by Mark. Research resources Photographs Oregon State Hospital Oregon State Hospital is a public psychiatric hospital in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the state's capital city of Salem. Founded in 1862 and constructed in the Kirkbride Plan design in 1883, it is the oldest operating
Capital punishment in Oregon Governor Oswald West. However, the death penalty was restored in 1920 with 56% of voters favoring its use. From 1864 to 1931, executions were carried out by hanging. However, beginning with the execution of LeRoy Hershel McCarthy, on January 30, 1939, Oregon began using lethal gas in gas-chamber executions. The state executed seventeen men in this manner. The last of these gas-inhalation executions took place on 20 August 1962, with the execution of Leeroy Sanford McGahuey. In 1964 voters passed Measure 1, a constitutional amendment prohibiting capital punishment, with 60% of voters approving. Governor Mark Hatfield commuted the sentences of