Two Oregon district attorneys, as well as the relatives of three homicide victims, have sued the state’s Democratic governor, accusing her of failing to follow the state’s clemency procedures and unlawfully freeing more than 1,000 inmates.
If Gov. Kate Brown’s clemency powers remain unchallenged, it could mean the release of violent offenders, including a man who stabbed his grandmother to death, another who killed a woman with the mental capacity of a 12-year-old and then burned her body beneath a bridge, and a then-17-year-old who shot his older brother three times in the head.
In the new legal filing, district attorneys Patricia Perlow and Doug Marteeny alleged Brown violated clemency procedures that require victim notification. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday, asks a Marion County Circuit Court judge to also stop Brown from allowing those convicted of crimes as minors from applying for commutation and argues that Brown overstepped her authority and circumvented laws and procedures in place.
“Victims of crime in Oregon have Constitutional and statutory rights that are being ignored by Governor Brown, the Oregon Department of Corrections, and the State Parole Board,” Lane County District Attorney Patricia Perlow said in a statement.
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Most of the 74 people granted clemency, and nearly all of the 953 convicts released by Brown’s use of clemency powers, have not applied for clemency, something that is required under state law. Inmates in Oregon must apply for clemency, and the application states the governor will only grant it in “exceptional cases when rehabilitation has been demonstrated by conduct as well as words.”
Oregon law also requires the governor to notify the district attorney of the county where the conviction took place and requires the DA to notify the victim and provide specific information to the governor, something the lawsuit alleges didn’t happen with Brown’s October clemency order.
“We are asking that the court compel the governor to follow the laws that are already in place,” Monique DeSpain, a lawyer who filed the case on behalf of Perlow, Marteeny, and the relatives of the homicide victims, told the Oregonian.
Brown commuted the sentences of 912 inmates who had a heightened risk of contracting COVID-19, according to a June 2021 letter she wrote to state lawmakers. She said the freed inmates were medically vulnerable, had completed at least half their sentences, and were not serving time for crimes against people. She also commuted the sentences of 41 inmates who helped fight the Labor Day 2020 wildfires and argued that those released didn’t “present an unacceptable safety, security, or compliance risk to the community.”
The lawsuit also seeks to stop Brown’s reconsideration of youth offenders’ sentences.
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On Oct. 20, Brown allowed 73 inmates convicted as juveniles to petition the parole board once they serve 15 years of their sentence, something the lawsuit argues extends Brown’s clemency powers beyond her term in office.
The Oregon Department of Corrections said in October that 250 juvenile offenders would be eligible for commutation if a 2019 law giving them “second look” hearings halfway through their sentences were to be retroactive. The law isn’t retroactive as currently written, but Brown believes it should be, according to a September letter to the state Department of Corrections.
“District attorneys and citizens across the state are voicing their shock,” the lawsuit states. “The new process and timelines for commuted felons to petition and meet the Board, and probable outcomes, remain a mystery to the district attorneys and, tragically, to the victims as well.”
In a statement, Perlow claimed Brown was ignoring crime victims’ statutory and constitutional rights.
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“The Governor’s priority is offenders of crime, many of them violent,” she said.
An email sent to the governor’s office by the Washington Examiner seeking comment was not returned.
