EDITORIAL: Governor's death penalty decision disrespects voters, juries

By Baker City Herald

Oregon’s soon-to-be ex-governor, Kate Brown, has a curious idea about what constitutes “finality” for the loved ones of murder victims.

Brown announced on Tuesday, Dec. 13 that she was commuting the death sentences for the 17 inmates, all of them convicted murderers, on the state’s death row. Those inmates now will serve a life sentence without the chance of parole.

Brown’s decision wasn’t shocking.

Like her predecessor, John Kitzhaber, Brown previously said she would not allow any executions. Kitzhaber declared a moratorium on the death penalty in the state in 2011. Oregon hasn’t executed a murderer since 1997.

But Brown, who will leave office Jan. 9 — Oregon’s term limits law precluded her from seeking another term — said she hopes commuting the death sentences “will bring us a significant step closer to finality in these cases.”

The governor also said that relatives of murder victims experience “pain and uncertainty” as they wait for an execution to be carried out.

Brown didn’t include with her announcement any comments from actual victims, however.

Regardless, it seems unlikely that most, if any, victims would consider waiting for a murderer to be executed worse than knowing that finality, to borrow the governor’s word, means the person will die a natural death in a state prison after spending years, or more likely decades, eating meals and benefiting from the shelter and medical care that taxpayers provide.

Brown’s commutation is the latest — and, presumably, the last — in a series of brazen decisions by Brown, Kitzhaber and the Democratic majority in the Oregon Legislature to take actions that ought to be the sole province of voters.

Capital punishment is part of the state Constitution, and amending that document can be done only by voters.

Besides which, the matter of capital punishment — whether the government, acting on behalf of citizens, should have the legal authority to kill someone — is so significant that the ballot is the only appropriate place to make such decisions.

It’s also a venue that ensures there will be a robust public debate — something utterly absent due to Brown’s unilateral action.

In addition to the moratorium on executions that Kitzhaber imposed in 2011 and that Brown continued when she was replaced him in 2015, in 2019 the Legislature passed a bill, which Brown signed into law, that significantly constricted the definition of “aggravated murder,” the only crime for which a person can be sentenced to the death penalty.

The practical effect of the law, according to Paige Clarkson, district attorney in Marion County, was to eliminate the death penalty as an option.

Almost four decades have passed since Oregon voters last decided that the death penalty should be a potential penalty.

Perhaps a majority, given the chance now, would disagree.

But Brown, and many legislators, seem to believe that elections are a hindrance to pursuing their aims.

Nor does the governor have much respect for the juries who passed the death sentences she has nullified.

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