Oregon’s Supreme Court ruled last week that Gary Haugen does not have the right to reject the reprieve from execution granted by Gov. John Kitzhaber more than 18 months ago. Now, as Kitzhaber has said more than once since, it is time for Oregonians to take part in a serious discussion of the issue.

Haugen is far from a nice guy. He murdered a former girlfriend’s mother in 1981, an act that earned him a life sentence in the Oregon State Penitentiary. Then, after murdering a fellow prisoner there in 2007, he was sentenced to death. In early 2011 he decided to quit fighting his execution.

Kitzhaber stepped in just about two weeks before Haugen’s scheduled Dec. 6, 2011, execution. He announced there would be no executions on his watch, not of Gary Haugen or of anyone else. He did not grant Haugen clemency — Haugen still faces the death penalty — but merely a reprieve until the governor leaves office.

Haugen appealed, and his lawyer came up with a novel argument. The reprieve doesn’t count, he said, because Haugen rejected it. The court, in turn, rejected that argument, as it should have. Haugen is a prisoner in the Oregon corrections system and as such he has forfeited the right to make such judgments about his life. Moreover, the state Constitution, which gives the governor the power to grant clemency and reprieves, does not give prisoners the right to reject them.

So Haugen will continue to sit on death row at least until Kitzhaber leaves office. Meanwhile, the Legislature made a not-terribly-serious attempt earlier this year to ask voters whether the state should keep the ultimate punishment. It never got out of committee.

That does not mean the matter should be dropped, however. Rather, it should serve as impetus to move the discussion out of the Legislature to the people of Oregon. They may not be ready for a change, but no one knows that for sure. That kind of certainty can come only after discussion and, ultimately, a statewide vote.