Democratic Gov. Kate Brown of Oregon announced Tuesday that she is commuting the sentences of the state’s 17 inmates on death row, noting that their sentences will be changed to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Brown, who will leave office next month, said his order will go into effect on Wednesday.
“I have long believed that justice is not promoted by taking a life, and the state should not get involved in the business of executing people, even if a terrible crime landed them in prison,” Brown said in a statement.
No prisoner in Oregon has been executed in 25 years.
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Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, D, announced Tuesday that she is commuting the sentences of the state’s 17 inmates on death row, with their sentences being changed to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
(AP Newsroom)
The governor had said in her first news conference after taking office in 2015 that she would continue the moratorium on the death penalty implemented by her predecessor, former Democratic Gov. John Kitzhaber.
Brown said in his announcement Tuesday that victims experience “pain and uncertainty while people are on death row, especially in states with moratoriums on executions, without resolution.”
“My hope is that this commutation brings us one significant step closer to finality in these cases,” he said.
To date, 17 people have been executed in the US this year, all by lethal injection, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. All of these executions took place in Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona, Missouri, and Alabama.
The execution room at the Oregon State Penitentiary is pictured on November 18, 2011 in Salem, Oregon.
(AP Newsroom)
Oregon is one of several US states that have moved away from executing prisoners.
Brown acknowledged in his statement that he previously granted commutations to “individuals who have demonstrated extraordinary growth and rehabilitation,” but that this commutation “is not based on any rehabilitation efforts by individuals on death row.”
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All executions carried out in the US in 2022 took place in Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona, Missouri and Alabama.
(AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)
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“Instead, it reflects the recognition that the death penalty is immoral,” he said. “It is an irreversible punishment that does not allow for correction; it is a waste of taxpayer dollars; it does not make communities safer; and it cannot be and never has been administered in a fair and equitable manner.”
In May 2020, the Oregon Department of Corrections declared that it would phase out its death row and reassign those inmates to other special housing units or general population units in state prisons.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
