[pjw] NEWS: Gov. Brown commutes all death row sentences in Oregon

[Peace and Justice Works]

Hello PJW supporters

On Tuesday, Gov. Kate Brown commuted the sentences of all death row 
inmates to life in prison without parole. It's so rare we have good news 
to share on the peace front, much less on one of our three main concerns 
about state power enforced through violence (war, police brutality and 
the death penalty).

There are already people complaining about this, including a victim's 
family member I saw on the news who said they didn't really have a 
position about the death penalty but now think the convicted killer should 
die to give their family closure. OK, then why don't you do that instead 
of making everyone in Oregon complicit to taking a life? What's that? 
Since the crime happened so long ago you can't legally claim self defense? 
OK, then, let's be reasonable about this.

It's also apparent that Brown could have done this on day one of her 
Governorship, having inherited Gov. Kitzhaber's policy not to carry out 
any executions, but I guess this is the safe thing for her to do 
politically-- get it done on the way out the door so the bloodthirsty 
folks who want to make the whole world blind can't blame Gov. Kotek on her 
way in.

Below is the Oregonians' very long article on this development. If there 
are forums you are in such as letters to editors, social media or social 
circles where you can support Gov. Brown's action please do. Do not kill 
in our name!!!

Thanks
dan handelman
peace and justice works

PS Hey this isn't breaking news but better late than never.

  https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2022/12/gov-kate-brown-commutes-sentences-of-all-17-people-on-oregons-death-row.html
Gov. Kate Brown commutes sentences of all 17 people on Oregon's death row
      * Updated: Dec. 14, 2022, 8:52 a.m
      * Published: Dec. 13, 2022, 4:00 p.m.
      * Hillary Borrud | The Oregonian/OregonLive

    Gov. Kate Brown announced Tuesday that she would commute the sentences
    of all 17 individuals on Oregon's death row to life in prison without
    the possibility of parole, the latest in her end-of-term string of
    clemency decisions.

    "I have long believed that justice is not advanced by taking a life,
    and the state should not be in the business of executing people -- even
    if a terrible crime placed them in prison," Brown said in a statement
    sent out in a press release. "This is a value that many Oregonians
    share."

    The governor also directed the Department of Corrections to dismantle
    the state's death chamber.

    Oregon has not executed anyone on death row for a quarter century and
    Brown continued the moratorium that former Gov. John Kitzhaber put in
    place in 2011. Governor-elect Tina Kotek, who like Brown and Kitzhaber
    is a Democrat, is personally opposed to the death penalty based on her
    religious beliefs and said during the campaign that she would continue
    the moratorium.

    Voters have gone back and forth on the death penalty over the years,
    abolishing and reinstating it repeatedly. Voters' most recent decision
    on the death penalty was in 1984, when they inserted it into the state
    Constitution.

    Oregon is one of 27 states that authorizes the death penalty, according
    to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

    One of those death row inmates is Randy Lee Guzek, who was convicted in
    1988 and sentenced to death for killing Rod and Lois Houser, of
    Terrebonne. Sue Shirley, the Housers' daughter, said Tuesday she was
    aware of the governor's decision to commute Guzek's sentence, but had
    not heard from the state directly.

    "I'm horrified and outraged and I don't know what this means," Shirley
    said Tuesday. "Will true life be true life?"

    Shirley noted that Guzek has been resentenced four times over the past
    24 years as the Legislature has changed rules, though his death penalty
    sentence has been repeatedly upheld.

    "All I know is that we never get to have a say," she said Tuesday.
    "Forty-eight jurors have said the just sentence was the death penalty,
    but that's been a moving target. The Legislature has changed the rules
    time and time again and it's just been a nightmare."

    In 2019, the Legislature passed a bill that limited the crimes that
    qualified for the death penalty by narrowing the definition of
    aggravated murder to killing two or more people as an act of organized
    terrorism; intentionally and with premeditation kilIing a child younger
    than 14; killing another person while locked up in jail or prison for a
    previous murder; or killing a police, correctional or probation
    officer.

    More than two years have passed since the Brown administration
    dismantled Oregon's death row, a move that acknowledged the effective
    end of capital punishment in the state.


    Brown said in her statement Tuesday that commuting the sentences of
    people currently serving on Oregon's death row was consistent with what
    she described as lawmakers' "near abolition" of capital punishment.

    "Unlike previous commutations I've granted to individuals who have
    demonstrated extraordinary growth and rehabilitation, this commutation
    is not based on any rehabilitative efforts by the individuals on death
    row," Brown said. "Instead, it reflects the recognition that the death
    penalty is immoral. It is an irreversible punishment that does not
    allow for correction; is wasteful of taxpayer dollars; does not make
    communities safer; and cannot be and never has been administered fairly
    and equitably."

    Twelve of the seventeen people on death row are white, three are
    Latino, one is American Indian or Alaska Native and one is Black,
    according to the governor's office.

    Brown's order will take effect on Wednesday.

    Rosemary Brewer, executive director of the Oregon Crime Victims Law
    Center, said it was her understanding that Oregon Department of Justice
    Crime Victim and Survivor Services Division staff worked Tuesday to
    notify family members and had reached all of the families affected by
    the commutations. A spokesperson for the governor confirmed that DOJ
    handled notification. However, Brewer said the governor should have
    given families more advance notice of her decision.

    "The victims should have been told about this so they had some time to
    prepare for it," Brewer said. "These are horrific cases that left
    completely devastated families. They're preparing for the holidays and
    all of a sudden, they see in the (newspaper) that the person who
    traumatized -- devastated -- their families had their death sentence
    commuted."

    Among the convicts whose sentences Brown commuted is Jesse Caleb
    Compton, a Springfield man who was convicted of killing his live-in
    girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter in the late 1990s. The girl's body
    showed evidence of horrific abuse and prosecutors called it the worst
    case of child abuse they had ever seen. Patty Perlow, the Lane County
    district attorney who prosecuted Compton, said that as heinous as the
    killing was, it no longer qualified for a death sentence under the
    definition of aggravated murder the Legislature passed in 2019.

    "When the legislature passed that bill, it did not include torture of a
    child in the definition of aggravated murder, only the pre-meditated
    murder of a child," she said. "The charge wasn't pled that way."

    One of Compton's appeals for post conviction relief went to trial in
    2012, where his lawyers argued that his original defense counsel was
    inadequate. The justice department prevailed and Compton's conviction
    and sentence were upheld. But Compton's appeal of that decision
    languished for years, Perlow said, and the Court of Appeals didn't hear
    arguments on it until earlier this year.

    If the court sides with the state, Compton is likely to appeal. If
    Compton prevails, the case will be sent back to Lane County for
    retrial. Perlow said it's unclear what impact the governor's
    commutation would have on his new prosecution.

    Advocates including the Oregon Justice Resource Center pushed for the
    governor to commute all death row sentences for years. On Tuesday, the
    center's executive director Bobbin Singh said in a statement that Brown
    "has made the right choice for Oregon in commuting these death
    sentences and dismantling the death chamber."

    Capital punishment "risks executing innocent people and Oregon is not
    immune to the causes of wrongful conviction seen around the country,"
    Singh said. He pointed to the case of Jesse Johnson, a client of the
    center, whose conviction and death sentence for the 1998 stabbing of a
    Salem woman were overturned last year by the Oregon Court of Appeals,
    which ruled his defense team had failed to interview a witness who saw
    another man enter the victim's house.

    "Research has demonstrated that the death penalty is tremendously
    wasteful of resources, does not keep our communities safer, and
    provides the fiction of closure as death penalty cases drags families
    through the courts for decades," Singh said.

    Brown's clemency actions, which included early release for people
    deemed at risk of serious health impacts from COVID-19 and inmates who
    helped fight Oregon's catastrophic 2020 wildfires, have freed roughly
    1,000 people from state prisons.

    The Oregonian/OregonLive asked Brown's spokespeople on Friday for the
    total number of people for whom the governor had issued pardons and
    commuted sentences. On Tuesday, press secretary Liz Merah responded
    that the governor has commuted the sentences of a total of 1,189
    incarcerated people.

    The governor also pardoned approximately 45,000 people this year for
    their marijuana possession convictions, although that did not result in
    anyone being freed from prison because no one in Oregon was
    incarcerated for simple possession of an ounce or less of marijuana.
    And she issued 77 other pardons for crimes that the governor's office
    did not identify.

    Oregon Senate Republican Leader Tim Knopp, R-Bend, released a statement
    late Tuesday asking whether the people of Oregon had voted to end the
    death penalty.

    "I don't recall that happening," he said. "This is another example of
    the Governor and the Democrats not abiding by the wishes of Oregonians.
    Even in the final days of her term, Brown continues to disrespect
    victims of the most violent crimes."

    Christian Michael Longo was convicted in the December 2001 murders of
    his wife, Mary Jane Longo, and their three children on the Oregon
    coast. Longo was sentenced to death in 2003.

    James Baker, Mary Jane Longo's father, said Tuesday that his family
    feels that justice has not been served.

    "As far as the family is concerned, this is wrong and wrong," Baker
    said. "The rest of us all have to live the rest of our lives knowing
    what he did. ... He killed his family, which is my daughter and my
    grandchildren, and they will never see life again."

    Baker said the governor's decision comes uncomfortably close to the
    anniversary of the killings.

    "Every single year we can't forget and every time Christmas rolls
    around, what we think about this," he said. "We have our scrapbooks and
    our pictures and we go through them around this time and realize these
    people are gone, and they are gone forever."

    Baker said he also worries that Longo's commuted sentence will give him
    a chance to appeal for parole and eventually, a chance to get out. He
    said he worries for his family's safety if Longo, now 48, were to ever
    get out of prison.

    Among the defendants who were sentenced to death but saw their
    sentences commuted Tuesday were the father and son team of Bruce and
    Joshua Turnidge. They were convicted of the aggravated murders of
    Oregon State Police Senior Trooper Bill Hakim and Woodburn Police Capt.
    Tom Tennant, when a bomb that the Turnidges built exploded inside a
    Woodburn bank on Dec. 12, 2008. The Turnidges also were convicted for
    injuries to Woodburn Police Chief Scott Russell, who survived but lost
    a leg and endured dozens of surgeries.

    Marion County District Attorney Paige Clarkson criticized the governor
    for wiping away death sentences, especially given the anniversary of
    the bank bombing a day earlier.

    "While I am not surprised at the Governor's disregard for victims in
    this way, I grieve for the loss of these courageous men and for the
    dearth of Oregon leadership that is disrespecting their memories,"
    Clarkson said in a statement.

    One of Clarkson's deputy district attorneys, Matt Kemmy, said he's
    prosecuted five murderers who initially were dealt death penalty
    sentences by juries. Three of those sentences stood until Tuesday -
    that of the Turnidges and Robert Langley, who killed two people in
    separate attacks in 1988. The body of one of Langely's victims was
    found under a cactus garden on the grounds of the Oregon State
    Hospital, where Langley had been receiving mental health treatment. At
    his original trial and in appeals, five separate juries voted to
    sentence Langley to death, Kemmy said.

    "I will never understand why people like Gov. Brown would rather be a
    hero to murderers than to be a protector of victims," Kemmy said.

    Wiping away death sentences is hurting many family members of those who
    were murdered, he said. Kemmy said his job is to enforce the law and if
    Oregon voters wanted to eliminate the death penalty, they would have.

    Bill Hakim's widow, Terri Hakim, said the governor's commutations are
    "devastating" and feel like an "early Christmas present" to the
    convicted and their families.

    "OK, let's just make it harder for the victims to go through their
    days, knowing that our governor is looking out for them and not us,"
    Terri Hakim said. "It's a very personal slap in the face."

    Hakim sarcastically joked that at least the governor waited until the
    day after the 14th anniversary of the bombing to make her announcement.
    She said since the Turnidges were sentenced to death in 2010, any
    solace she felt has eroded again and again as two governors placed
    moratoriums on executions; the Legislature made it exceptionally
    difficult for defendants who kill to be sentenced to death; and the
    Turnidges appealed their convictions. Their latest attempt was heard
    just last month during a post-conviction relief trial.

    Terri Hakim said she never thought the Turnidges actually would be
    executed.

    "I liked the fact that they would be isolated by themselves," she said.
    "I liked the fact that they didn't have privileges in the general
    population."

    Hakim's adult daughter, Page Hakim, feels differently than her mother.
    She doesn't oppose the governor's decision, although she wishes the
    governor's office had put more time between informing families and
    making it public. She said she was at work and hadn't had a chance to
    open an email sent from the state Tuesday afternoon until after the
    governor had already made her announcement and a member of the news
    media had reached out to her.

    But Page Hakim supports the governor's decision, because she doesn't
    support the death penalty.

    "I have no kind thoughts for the murderers of my father," she said. "I
    do not believe they ever deserve freedom."

    But, she added, "the justice is making them live with their crime. And
    to know that that crime will never allow them freedom again."

    Here is the complete list of people whose death sentences will be
    commuted on Wednesday:

      * Jesse Caleb Compton, a Springfield methamphetamine user who was
        convicted of killing Tesslyn O'Cull, the 3-year-old daughter of his
        live-in girlfriend. The girl's body, found in a shallow grave in
        1997, showed signs of being bound, shocked and sexually assaulted
        and prosecutors called it the worst case of child abuse they had
        ever seen.

      * Clinton Wendess Cunningham, an Oklahoma resident who was convicted
        of raping and murdering 19-year-old Shannon Faith of Vancouver,
        B.C., in 1991 after he picked her up hitchhiking near Coos Bay.
        Cunningham stabbing Faith 37 times, then dumped her
        partially-clothed body by the side of a logging road near Elkton.

      * Randy Lee Guzek was sentenced to death in 1988 after he was
        convicted of killing Rod and Lois Houser, of Terrebonne. Guzek, who
        was 18, shot Lois Houser three times with a handgun, chased her up
        a staircase and shot her for the last time as she huddled inside a
        closet. Two other men were also convicted of participating in the
        murders.

      * Gary Dwayne Haugen was convicted of aggravated murder in 1981 for
        killing the mother of his ex-girlfriend at her Northeast Portland
        home. He beat the woman to death with his fists, a hammer and a
        baseball bat and was sentenced to life in prison. Then in 2007
        Haugen, along with fellow inmate Jason Van Brumwell, was convicted
        in the 2003 killing of fellow prison inmate David Shane Polin, 31,
        in the activities area at the Salem prison.

      * Michael James Hayward and three companions were convicted of
        killing a convenience store clerk and severely beating another in
        1994. Frances Walls died after a metal bar went through her skull;
        Donna Ream survived despite being hit more than 50 times with a
        metal bar and losing nearly half her blood.

      * Robert Paul Langley Jr. was convicted of killing and burying Anne
        Louise Gray, 39, and Larry Richard Rockenbrant, 24, in separate
        incidents in 1988.

      * Christian Michael Longo was convicted of killing his wife and three
        children on the Oregon Coast. Their bodies were recovered from two
        coastal inlets around Christmas 2001. Longo went on the lam and was
        eventually captured in Mexico posing as a travel writer.

      * Ernest Noland Lotches was convicted of killing William G. Hall, 33,
        a downtown Portland security guard during a running gun battled
        that terrified Saturday shoppers in August 1992. Hall, a security
        guard for the downtown Economic Improvement District, had tried to
        question Lotches about a minor assault. Lotches fled, and the two
        exchanged gunfire. Hall died after pulling a 9-year-old child out
        of the line of fire as Lotches was trying to commandeer a car.

      * Michael Martin McDonnell had been serving a sentence for perjury
        and theft when he walked away from the Oregon State Penitentiary on
        Nov. 21, 1984. While an escapee, McDonnell stabbed Joey B. Keever,
        22, of Roseburg, 42 times in her pickup truck near Yoncalla on Dec.
        22, 1984. Keever's throat was cut and she was dumped near U.S. 99.
        McDonnell was the second man charged with capital murder after
        voters re-instated the death penalty in November 1984.

      * Marco Antonio Montez and Timothy Aikens beat, raped and sodomized
        Candace Straub in a Portland motel room in 1987. They then
        strangled her with a bed sheet and set her body on fire. Montez was
        later arrested in Idaho. Aikens is serving a life sentence.

      * Horacio Alberto Reyes-Camarena stabbed Maria Zetina and her sister,
        Angelica Zetina, and dumped their bodies along U.S. 101. Despite 17
        stab wounds, Angelica Zetina survived and identified Reyes-Camarena
        as her attacker. On appeal to the Oregon Supreme Court, his
        attorneys argued that his statements to police should have been
        suppressed because he was not informed of his right to speak with
        his consulate. He is a Mexican citizen and was the only foreign
        national on Oregon's Death Row.

      * Ricardo Pineda Serrano was convicted for the 2006 shooting of
        Melody Dang, 37, and her sons Steven, 15, and Jimmy, 12.
        Prosecutors said Serrano was seeking revenge against Mike Nguyen,
        Dang's partner. Nguyen had an affair with Serrano's wife, Melinda,
        and got her pregnant. Melinda Serrano testified in court that her
        husband beat her, raped her and left her so terrified that she was
        unable to take their five children and leave him. She filed for
        divorce in 2011.

      * Matthew Dwight Thompson was convicted of murdering Andrew J.
        McDonald and Paul Whitcher. Thompson stabbed McDonald 14 times
        after returning to a Portland tavern he'd been kicked out of. He
        also stabbed McDonald's wife, Deborah Oyamada, and another tavern
        patron. McDonald died on the way to the hospital. Later that night,
        Thompson stabbed Whitcher, who was found dead in the intersection
        of Northeast 61st Avenue and Sacramento Street.

      * Bruce Aldon Turnidge and his son, Joshua Abraham Turnidge, were
        found guilty of all charges in the Dec. 12, 2008, bombing at West
        Coast Bank in Woodburn. The explosion killed two police officers,
        Woodburn police Capt. Tom Tennant and Oregon State Police senior
        trooper William Hakim. Another officer lost his leg and a bank
        employee was injured when police tried to dismantle the bomb.

      * Joshua Abraham Turnidge testified in his own defense, suggesting
        his father acted alone. During the trial, Turnidge showed no signs
        of emotion until the day the court listened to a recording to a
        phone call he had with his daughter while in custody.

      * Mike Spenser Washington Jr. shot witness Mohamed Jabbie seven times
        after he testified against Washington before a Multnomah County
        grand jury on Sept. 23, 2004. Jabbie had testified that Washington
        assaulted him after he'd begun dating Washington's long-time
        girlfriend.

      * Tara Ellyssia Zyst (also known as Karl Terry) was convicted for
        hacking Jeffrey and Dale Brown to death with an 18-inch long
        Japanese sword as they slept on Aug. 6, 1994. The three were
        camping in a Milwaukie park next to the Willamette River in
        celebration of Dale Brown's birthday.

    -- Hillary Borrud; hborrud at oregonian.com

    Oregonian staffers Ted Sickinger, Aimee Green and Kristine de Leon
    contributed to this report.