Starting in July, district attorneys in all 36 Oregon counties will be charged with making sure that most grand jury proceedings are recorded. Those recordings will be available, not to the general public, but to defendants whose lawyers will be able to use them in court. That’s good news. For now, only Deschutes, Jackson and
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,
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
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
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.
Last year, Multnomah County District Attorney Rod Underhill assured Portlanders his office did not communicate with federal immigration agents. “The Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office does not notify or alert immigration officials or agencies regarding witnesses, victims or defendants with whom we come into contact,” he said in a statement in January 2017. Underhill made
A seemingly innocuous case against a Portland police sergeant may set a new precedent for how far the county’s top lawyer will go to protect cops—and how little the citizen-led police oversight board can do about it. When a Portlander brings a potentially criminal complaint against an officer, it’s Portland Police Bureau (PPB) procedure to
Fewer than half of all Oregonians have faith in the American justice system, according to a new survey conducted by DHM Research. The poll found that only 49 percent of state residents believe the system is working to determine guilt beyond a reasonable doubt in criminal cases. Forty-one percent say it is not working and
Oregon’s longstanding policy of treating juvenile offenders accused of serious crimes as adults is “harsh and costly” and fails to account for adolescents’ capacity for change, the Oregon Council on Civil Rights says in a new report issued Tuesday. The seven-member council reviewed Measure 11’s impact on young offenders. The law spells out mandatory minimum
The Oregon District Attorneys Association last week announced plans to lead a ballot campaign to abolish the state’s unusual practice of allowing nonunanimous juries to decide some felony cases. The move is long overdue, and the association’s action is welcome. And, on a day when we celebrate the life and legacy of Martin Luther King