After being sentenced to death three times and spending more than 20 years on Oregon’s death row, convicted murderer Randy Lee Guzek’s continuing legal battle could go one of three ways.

Either a fourth Deschutes County jury will sentence him to death next year.

He’ll spend the rest of his life in prison with no chance to get out.

Or he’ll be eligible for parole in 10 years.

On Thursday, Guzek, 39, was back in the Deschutes County courtroom where he was originally convicted of the 1987 murders of Rod and Lois Houser in their Terrebonne home.

The couple’s family watched Thursday as Guzek’s defense attorneys raised one legal issue after another in preparation for a fourth death penalty trial scheduled to begin in June.

All three death sentences have been reversed on different legal grounds.

The issue of Guzek’s death sentence has bounced back and forth between local judges, the Oregon Supreme Court and, in December 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court.

On the last appeal, the court ruled that two alibi witnesses should not be allowed to testify in the fourth death penalty trial, but that jurors can hear some alibi evidence.

But his murder convictions stand, and now the higher courts have sent the case back to Deschutes County, where a fourth jury could convene to decide his fate in June of next year.

Unless, that is, his lawyers convince Lane County Judge Jack Billings, who has been appointed to hear the case, that the death penalty should not apply in Guzek’s case.

That is one of the many arguments defense lawyers Gordon Mallon and Mark Rader are making on Guzek’s behalf.

They say the state death penalty law in place at the time Guzek was originally sentenced was later invalidated by the U.S. Supreme Court.

So, Mallon said, the legal basis to sentence Guzek to death in the first place also became invalid.

“That death penalty statute has been ruled to be unconstitutional, so there was no constitutional statute, and that puts Mr. Guzek and a handful of others in Oregon in a sort of unique situation,” Mallon said.

Billings did not rule on the issue Thursday.

Mallon also said he and Rader would be challenging Oregon’s current death penalty statute as unconstitutional in a “number of discrete challenges” yet to come.

Guzek’s lawyers also said Thursday that they’ve yet to decide if they want a fourth jury to consider the “true life” sentencing option for their client.

A life sentence without the possibility of parole was not available under Oregon law when Guzek was initially convicted.

The law creating the “true life” sentence was not passed until two years after the Houser murders.

So the first jury that sentenced him to death had two choices: the death penalty or life in prison with a chance for parole after 30 years. Since he has already served 20 years, if they had chosen the latter he’d be eligible for parole in 10 years.

But in one of his appeals, his previous lawyers convinced a higher court that Guzek should be eligible for life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Mallon and Rader said Thursday they may back off that position, much to Billings’ confusion.

“So, if I understand you correctly, after all the bluster and gun smoke, you are saying the defendant might decide not to have true life presented to the jury?” Billings asked, “that he take swing number four at life with the possibility of parole, despite having missed it three times?”

Billings called that move “a real poor idea.”

At the end of the hearing, Billings spoke to Guzek’s lawyers and Clatsop County District Attorney Josh Marquis, who has been appointed to prosecute the case, about the possibility of coming to an agreement on a sentence, rather than taking the case in front of a fourth jury.

He spoke about the more than 20 years that have passed since the crimes and the lengthy appeals process likely to follow any jury verdict next year.

Billings speculated that the case could easily drag on to the 25- or 30-year mark.

“And I’d be surprised if anybody has undertaken to calculate what this case has cost the state of Oregon, but I know it’s a seven-figure number, and the first figure might not be a one,” he said.

But if the case does go to a fourth death penalty trial next year, Billings ruled Thursday that Guzek would be under control of guards at all times while in the courtroom. After consulting with Deschutes County jail officials, Billings ordered Guzek to wear a “stun belt” under his clothes and around his waist during the trial.

The ruling was in response to a defense request that Guzek appear for trial without ankle or wrist restraints.

The belt serves essentially the same function as a Taser, delivering an electrical shock to the wearer, said Deschutes County Sheriff Sgt. Tedd Morris.

Officials use them on prisoners who pose a high risk to others, he said. “It is to halt behavior, to stop someone from being aggressive, and that is all it is for,” Morris said.