Oregon Live: In Yamhill County, a McMinnville teen admitted that he slit the throat of his father’s girlfriend and beat her to death with baseball bats. In Lane County, a teen used a football-sized rock to bash his sleeping victim’s head until his mouth caved in. Despite the violent nature of both cases, both murderers – now 18 years old – will be released from custody by age 25. If not earlier.
The resolutions of these cases signal a grave threat to public safety and stem directly from the passage last year of Senate Bill 1008, which repealed provisions of Measure 11 as it applies to juvenile offenders.
Measure 11, adopted by voters in 1994, required that juveniles aged 15-to-17 years old charged with violent crimes including murder, aggravated assault, armed robbery, forcible rape and other sex offenses were automatically prosecuted in adult court. If convicted, they faced the measure’s mandatory minimum sentences. (In 1997, the Legislature created exceptions for some cases of assault, robbery, and kidnapping.)
After the enactment of Measure 11, Oregon experienced a historic reduction in violent crime which dropped for seven consecutive years after the peak in 1995, for a total decrease of 44 percent. By 2009, the total decrease was more than 50 percent and by 2014, it was 55 percent.
The passage of SB 1008 returned Oregon to the system that existed prior to Measure 11. Instead of automatic prosecution of teens charged with these serious crimes in adult court, prosecutors have to ask a juvenile court judge to decide whether to retain the youth in the juvenile system or waive the accused to adult court.
During my 33-year career as a prosecutor, including five years as Multnomah County’s senior deputy district attorney in charge of the juvenile unit, I have personally handled and supervised other prosecutors in dozens of waiver cases. I can attest from experience that the waiver statutes are so vaguely written as to justify almost any decision. Under the waiver statutes, the court has nearly complete discretion over whether or not to treat a teen as an adult. That decision, however, carries grave consequences for the offender and for society. read more
One party (the WRONG party) rule, and this is what you get, kids. Thanks, CA transplants!
they didn’t leave CA to escape……. they are a virus … spreading. Beware!
Today, in Oregon, I legally carry.
Should the libs take away my license, I will continue to carry.
One of the problems with not prosecuting youthful offenders as adults is the gangs are very savvy, and will have the younger members commit the more heinous crimes since they won’t have to serve long sentences if caught. As usual, the bleeding heart progressives have actually encouraged youthful criminals, rather than “saved” them.
@Crackerbaby — The sacramentovirus pandemic is truly terrifying.
90 plus percent of the folks I work with are from Kali. And they don’t like guns, or anything Constitutional. Kate Brown was born in Spain. Kitzhaber, who “goes both ways” Kate covered for him while he escaped prosecution. He was born in Washington state.
Kate most likely ordered LaVoy Finicum’s murder.
Oregon is fuked!
Governor Kulongouski was born in Missouri. Another democRat asshole.
See!? Loyal Patriots™!? We live in a noble republic! Not a filthy democracy! The will of the plebes, is but a stain! To be scraped off our patrician sandals!
Let me guess…they will all vote Democrat?
RickeyG
MAY 2, 2020 AT 8:25 AM
“Let me guess…they will all vote Democrat?”
…their dead victims certainly will…
The left needs violent street thugs to do their bidding and their planned-upon genocide.
If you don’t’ believe that, you need to do more soul-searching.
Since men can marry and adopt boys, I expect we’ll be seeing a lot of homicides out of the boys.
Vlad Tepes (the real Dracula) was a hostage of the Ottoman Turkish empire as a teen – a fact which makes his impalement of moslem invaders seem very unsurprising to me.