A request for the governor to reconsider commutations stems from former Gov. Kate Brown’s commutation of the 50-month sentence against Jesse Lee Calhoun, a 38 year old who police say is “a person of interest” in the killings of four Portland area women.
Tag: CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown commutes 17 death sentences, ending death row
Brown has made clemency a main focus of her governorship, issuing pardons or commutations for nearly 50,000 people.
Oregon Chief Justice Martha Walters to retire at year’s end
Oregon Chief Justice Martha Walters will retire on Dec. 31 after 16 years on the state’s Supreme Court and four years as its leader.
A request for millions as state lawmakers consider major overhaul of public defense system
The office of public defense plans to ask the Legislature for $6 million to help it through the current crisis.
Oregon chief justice fires public defense board, rehires some members
The commission is expected to again consider firing Stephen Singer, director of the state Office of Public Defense Services.
Boy charged with murder first in Marion County to be tried as adult since Measure 11 reform
Joshua Steward left Gresham the night of Jan. 16, 2021 in his girlfriend’s Toyota Camry, headed for Northeast Savage Road in Salem. He had arranged to buy $340 of cocaine, according to testimony by Salem police detective Jamie Vasas in a Marion County Juvenile Court hearing May 2. Steward’s girlfriend[Read More…]
Marion County’s top judge presses lawyers to take up public defense work
(Caleb Wolf/Special to Salem Reporter) Marion County’s presiding judge said the state’s public defense office must more rapidly appoint attorneys to represent indigent defendants or face being held in contempt. In a letter to Stephen Singer, executive director of the state Office of Public Defense Services, Circuit Judge Tracy Prall[Read More…]
Oregonians deprived of court-appointed lawyers sue state over their constitutional rights
The Oregon Supreme Court Building (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter) Four Oregonians who face criminal charges are suing over their constitutional right to have legal representation in a criminal proceeding. Though they can’t pay for a lawyer and qualify for court-appointed counsel, they’ve not been assigned a public defender, according to the[Read More…]
Marion County gets state grant funds to help keep people out of prisons
(Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter) For more than ten years, Marion County commissioner Kevin Cameron said county officials have sought programs to help get people out of the criminal justice system and back into their communities. “It’s been a big part of our culture in that people deserve a second chance,” he[Read More…]
Courts in Marion and Polk counties begin responding to U.S. Supreme Court decision striking split jury verdicts
Marion County Courthouse (File/Salem Reporter) People convicted of state crimes in split jury verdicts in Marion and Polk counties could get new trials or see charges dropped as Oregon responds to a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case. In April, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Ramos v. Louisiana that Oregon’s[Read More…]
