A new report gives progressives a major victory in Oregon’s long-running battle over criminal justice reform. Prosecutors said a 2017 law requiring the recording of grand jury proceedings would lead to disaster, but their predictions turned out to be wrong. “By all accounts, the implementation of Senate Bill 505 has gone smoothly,” says Mary Sofia,
Oregonians like to pride themselves on being leaders in such things as protecting beaches and imposing deposit fees on a variety of bottles. When it comes to transparency of government, however, we have nothing to brag about. Just ask a group of journalism students at the University of Oregon. Earlier this year the students asked
A Springfield police officer has resumed patrol duties after prosecutors declined to file assault charges against him in connection with an April incident that left a man with injured ribs. Ryan Stone was on administrative leave for eight months while police investigators and prosecutors reviewed his conduct. He returned to duty this week, Springfield city
For decades, Portland Public Schools protected a teacher with a history of sexually abusing students, covering up for him by ignoring complaints about his behavior and allowing him to continue his assaults. We know this sordid tale thanks to Bethany Barnes of The Oregonian, who early this year wrote detailed investigative reports about PPS’s actions
DALLAS — The Dallas County district attorney, Faith Johnson, often reminds voters that she recently won a rare murder conviction against a white police officer who shot into a car full of teenagers, killing a black 15-year-old boy. “They couldn’t get that conviction in New York. They couldn’t get it in California. They couldn’t get
The incarceration rate in Oregon’s prison system is projected to fall 15 percent over the next decade due in large part to sentencing reform. The projection, done by the Oregon Department of Administrative Services and published Oct. 1, found that recent legislation lowering mandatory minimums for crimes like theft and identity theft is the driving
A shift in prosecuting strategy that allows some drug offenders to be charged with misdemeanors instead of felonies led to plummeting felony conviction rates for all racial demographics in Multnomah County, according to a Sept. 15 Criminal Justice Commission report. Multnomah County adopted the policy change last year, months before the state passed a law
Last week, the story of Joshua Horner and Lucy the black Labrador who got him out of jail quickly spread from Oregon around the world. Give credit to the Oregon Innocence Project and the Deschutes County District Attorney’s Office for pursuing the truth. No district attorney should let pride stand in the way of justice.
The Oregon District Attorney Association is taking heat from criminal justice reform advocates for inviting a controversial speaker to its summer conference two weeks ago. The organization invited St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch, who handled the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. McCulloch’s presentation was ill-received by some of the
Robert McCulloch assured the city of Ferguson, repeatedly and occasionally in all caps, that he was “fair and impartial in every matter” concerning the criminal case of the police officer who killed Michael Brown. But his critics had doubts. They said the white St. Louis County, Mo., prosecutor’s family was, after all, full of police