Oregon governor Kate Brown said Tuesday that the state’s 17 death-row inmates will be spared execution and will instead have their sentences downgraded to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
“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,” the outgoing Democratic governor said in a statement.
She added: “This commutation is not based on any rehabilitative efforts by the individuals on death row. Instead, it reflects the recognition that the death penalty is immoral. It is an irreversible punishment that does not allow for correction.”
The decision relies upon the governor’s executive clemency powers.
Brown said victims experience “pain and uncertainty” while inmates wait on death row for decades.
“My hope is that this commutation will bring us a significant step closer to finality in these cases,” she said.
The state has not executed a prisoner in 25 years. Brown’s predecessor, former governor John Kitzhaber, instituted a death penalty moratorium that Brown chose to continue when she took office in 2015.
Oregon voters abolished the state’s death penalty in 1964 but later voted to reinstate it in 1978. Three years later the state supreme court declared it unconstitutional before Oregon voters again supported its reinstatement in 1984, per the Associated Press.
State Representative Vikki Breese-Iverson, leader of the Oregon House Republicans, blasted the governor’s announcement on Tuesday.
“Gov. Brown has once again taken executive action with zero input from Oregonians and the Legislature,” Breese-Iverson said in a statement. “Her decisions do not consider the impact the victims and families will suffer in the months and years to come. Democrats have consistently chosen criminals over victims.”
Brown previously drew scrutiny for granting clemency during the Covid-19 pandemic to nearly 1,000 people convicted of crimes. Brown allowed 73 people convicted of murder, assault, rape and manslaughter while they were younger than 18 to apply for early release.
