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WHAT I'M FOCUSED ON THIS WEEK: OREGON EDITION. The short of it: Oregon lawmakers passed #SB1013 earlier this year to restrict the death penalty. Weak-willed Dems, bending to prosecutors' complaints, are considering calling a special session to water down the bill. They shouldn't.
To say there is a failure of leadership right now among Dems in Oregon would be an understatement. It is not clear what the purpose is of having a Dem trifecta state, and of having officeholders allegedly opposed to the death penalty, if this is what they’re doing w/ that power.
Oregon Sen. Floyd Prozanski, a purported Dem, had been one of the lawmakers behind #SB1013, which signif scaled back the DP in Oregon. It didn’t get rid of it—as the state should eventually do—but it made progress by limiting the crimes subject to it. olis.leg.state.or.us/liz/2019R1/Dow…
In the course of passing the death penalty bill and a juveniles bill, a 3rd bill set some limits on who the changes would apply to. That bill made clear the DP limits would apply to capital sentencing after Sept. 29, when the law would go into effect. olis.leg.state.or.us/liz/2019R1/Dow…
Think of 4 categories: (1) Crimes not yet committed, (2) people not yet sentenced, (3) people whose sentences are overturned for whatever reason and need to be re-sentenced as of or after Sept. 29 and (4) people on death row with finalized sentences. #SB1013 applies to 1, 2, & 3.
While some, including @SenProzanski, have said the inclusion of categories 2 and 3 make the bill “retroactive,” that’s just not true. The state’s sentencing — not the commission of the crime — is the relevant date under the new law. See: oregonlive.com/opinion/2019/0…
Nonetheless, Prozanski is now asking for the law to be revised in a special session of the legislature before the law can go into effect. He just wants the bill to apply to new crimes. This argument is, in effect, a “we didn’t read the bill” argument. oregonlive.com/politics/2019/…
.@ORDOJ, led by AG Rosenblum, has backed the “we didn’t read the bill” argument. Prosecutors and others who opposed the change in the first place have unsurprisingly joined them — specifically, Prozanski — in trying to move the state backward. 
The worst part—and the reason this situation should be concerning to anyone who supports electing progressive leaders to pass progressive criminal justice policies—is that none of the state’s Dem leaders are, thus far, standing up to this.
.@OregonGovBrown has suggested she'll call a special session — but hasn't done so yet. apnews.com/35e9699bb9a24d…
Dem House (@TinaKotek) & Senate (Peter Courtney) leaders, including the bill's House sponsor (@Jennifer_for_OR Williamson), veer from support to ambiguity to a move by Williamson not to support a change to #SB1013 but also not to oppose a special session. opb.org/news/article/o…
All of this makes little sense given the landscape in the state. There are less than three dozen people on Oregon's death row, Brown has kept in place a moratorium on executions, and no one has been executed in the state in more than 20 years.
With Brown’s signing of #SB1013 into law, the state started moving solidly toward cutting back on the state’s *power* to kill. This was a good move. And it is set to go into effect before the month is out.
Brown has called the death penalty “immoral.” She can commute death sentences in the state and should do so if she wants to put the weight of her office behind that claim, as others have urged her to do: oregonlive.com/opinion/2018/1…
In the meantime, Prozanski should be ashamed of his effort to take the state backward and bend the new law to prosecutors’ will after the fact. And all of the Dems not yet standing up to his craven political move should be embarrassed.
Brown and the state's other Democratic leaders should earn the claim to be leaders by rejecting Prozanski and prosecutors' calls for a special session. #NoSpecialSession
Update: SUCCESS! There will NOT be a special session in Oregon.
It shouldn’t have been this much of a fight, but it was good that @OregonGovBrown ultimately came to the right decision here.
