February 21, 2023 11:30 a.m. 

A former death row inmate from a Douglas County case died while in hospice care at a Salem area hospital while in custody of the Oregon Department of Corrections, on Sunday evening.

A Department of Corrections release said 71-year old Michael McDonnell entered DOC custody on May 16, 1984 from Douglas and Lane counties with no release date.

McDonnel was serving a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Court records show he was originally sentenced to death but he was one of 17 inmates whose death row sentence was commuted by former-governor Kate Brown in December of 2022. The sentences were changed from death row to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

The News Review is reporting that McDonnel was originally serving a 10-year sentence for perjury and theft when he escaped from the Oregon State Penitentiary on November 21, 1984. While being on the run, McDonnell stabbed 22-year old Joey Keever of Roseburg 42 times at a location near Yoncalla. Keever’s throat was cut and her body dumped along the side of the road. McDonnell was the second man sentenced to death after the death penalty was reinstated in 1984.