Prosecutors and law enforcement officials are unleashing criticism of Oregon Gov. Kate Brown after she granted clemency to a man who was convicted of murdering a teenage girl in 1994.
Kyle Hedquist, who was sentenced to life without parole after being convicted of killing 17-year-old Nikki Thrasher, was released on April 15 despite objections from the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office, which handled the prosecution.
“This case represents a shocking lack of concern by the Governor’s Office for the safety of our community, disregard for the transparency of any process and apathy toward the normal safety protocols for such an obvious risk,” District Attorney Paige Clarkson said in a statement. “A Judge in an entirely different part of the state determined that this offender should never be out of prison and yet he is now living in our county without the proper safety assurances. Our community deserves better than what our state leadership foisted upon us here.”
Hedquist was convicted of aggravated murder in 1994 after he pleaded guilty to killing Thrasher in an attempt to eliminate witness testimony in another crime he committed. After Hedquist had robbed his aunt’s home, he stored the possessions in the home of a co-conspirator, records show.
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Thrasher asked about the items, which included electronics and firearms, prompting Hedquist to believe she may turn him into the police, according to police records. He then convinced her to drive him to a rural location in Douglas County, where he shot her ”execution-style in the back of the head and dumped her body along the road.”
“Despite these horrific facts and his violent history, and over the objection of the Douglas County DA whose office originally handled the prosecution, Governor Brown granted clemency to Hedquist, thereby granting his release,” the Marion County District Attorney’s Office wrote in a statement.
Brown defended the decision on Tuesday, comparing her clemency to President Joe Biden’s pardons announced that day.
“Teenagers, even those who have committed terrible crimes, have a unique capacity for growth and change,” Brown said. “I am disappointed that several district attorneys have chosen of late to score political points by issuing press releases that stoke public fears in these cases, decades after the original crimes were committed.”
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Hedquist now lives in a home in Salem with standard conditions of supervision and GPS monitoring, according to court records.
