1. This interview with retiring "tough on crime" Oregon District Attorney Josh Marquis is full of flat out lies. It's is totally irresponsible of @KOINNews to publish it. koin.com/news/local/ore…
2. But it's not at all surprising that @KOINNews would publish these flat out lies. Oregon news outlets – including people like @SteveDuin @Oregonian – have been lazily amplifying Marquis' false and deeply misleading statements for years.
3. Even though Marquis represents about 1% of Oregonians, he has long been the "go to" for lazy Oregon reporters because he's colorful and play-acts a comic-book 1990s version of "tough on crime" bluster.
4. Marquis is entitled to his bang-on-his-chest tough guy stance. (Compensating for his injured masculinity.) And lazy though it is, reporters are entitled to quote him. BUT the reporters rarely bother to fact check him and so they end up being conduits for his lies.
6. Oregon ended prison sentences for *possession of some amount of some drugs. (You can still do jail time for possession, just not prison time). But the punishment for sale of drugs remains a prison-able offense.
7. And the claim that there is a law – or even a proposed law – that makes it so that those who sell heroin "never go prison" is false. It's a flat lie. And it was printed by @KOINNews. Totally irresponsible. 
8. The same lie is repeated, with greater emphasis, later in the interview. Flat out lie.
9. In fact, *Josh Marquis himself* charges and convicts people of drug felonies (i.e. prisonable offenses). It's right here in his hometown newspaper. dailyastorian.com/news/local/aft…
10. But there are more lies. For example, this is a flat out lie.
11. Contra Marquis who suggests Oregon has the second lowest incarceration rate in the nation (after Vermont), US Department of Justice statistics show that Oregon is about 22nd lowest. bjs.gov/content/pub/pd…
12. But that's not all. There are still more lies. Like this one.
13. Contra what Marquis says, the Oregon Constitution specifically grants Oregon governors the power to grant reprieves. oregonlegislature.gov/bills_laws/Pag…
14. And contra Marquis' naked assertion that the current moratorium (via the reprieve power) is extra-legal and without authority, the Oregon Supreme Court – the final interpreter of the Oregon Constitution – has said otherwise. See Haugen v. Kitzhaber. law.justia.com/cases/oregon/s…
15. There are other lies/exaggerations. For example, even using liberal definitions, a fraction of the ~35 people on Oregon's death row are "mass murderers and child killers." And zero public officials who oppose the death penalty favor putting them "back on the street."
16. Oh, here's yet another false statement. (Via @JesseMerrithew.) Contra Marquis' assertion, the sentence for rape of a 7-year-old does not "top out" at 8 years. In fact, the mandatory minimum for rape of a child under 12 years old is 25 years. oregonlaws.org/ors/137.700
