Death Penalty Legislative Action Alert

Oregon Legislative Action

During the 2007 Oregon legislative session, a group of death penalty abolition activists including representatives of Oregonians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty came together to urge the Legislature to pass Senate Bill 1018. SB 1018 proposed the creation of a task force to study Oregon’s death penalty and make recommendations to the 2009 legislature.

As many are already aware, the effort was not successful. Since this was the first time, at least in many years, that an effort had been made to get the legislature to closely and carefully examine the death penalty it was anticipated that it would be difficult to get a hearing on such a bill - let alone have it advance all the way through the legislature.

Representative Chip Shields (D-Portland), Chair of the Joint Ways and Means Committee Subcommittee on Public Safety, had SB 1018 drafted, gave advice and provided staff assistance for the working group. Senator Ginny Burdick (D-Portland), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, was willing to schedule a hearing on the bill. In addition, Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers had indicated his support of the study committee and had agreed to provide the staff for the task force.

We know, because we were told, that the help and activism that poured forth from OADP’s membership made a difference. Thank you to all who wrote, called, emailed and FAXed.

So, what have we learned?

We know we must begin working much earlier before the 2009 Legislature. That means contacting and educating more legislators and working with the leadership to show them that it is politically possible to introduce legislation that will thoroughly examine how the death penalty works in Oregon. We will want them
to understand that the death penalty cannot, and never will be able to, achieve the goals that were set for it and that it is an unconscionable drain on state resources.

Legislators will listen when they sense people are united around an idea. All indications are that citizens also are questioning the death penalty and are ready to hear our message. For legislators and citizens to get the news, YOU need to become involved. The movement led by OADP needs YOU to step up.

Talented and committed people, who could step into leadership roles on the board of directors and/or lead local affiliates, are members of OADP right now, or are observing from the sidelines. Technology now allows us to conduct meetings by telephone, internet, and email so it is not necessary to gather in the same place. Our current leadership is willing also to travel around the state to attend meetings and speak to groups.

OADP will be effective with a statewide membership of hundreds (thousands) of people. A larger and more robust OADP will contact legislative and local leaders, speak to more citizens, rally more membership, and show the decision makers that there is strong and active support for abolition of the death penalty and that the first step is to authorize the state to examine it.

Now it is time to take the next step. Please follow the link to How I Can Help>Membership Form to respond to OADP with your commitment to join the abolition movement. Copy it and give it to friends and distribute it at organizations to which you belong.

Margaret Mead said "Never underestimate what a small group of committed people can do to change the world, indeed it is the only thing that ever has."

Together we can succeed in eliminating the death penalty in Oregon.

Read the text of Bill SB1018 as it was introduced in the 2007 Oregon Legislature.

The following is the Death Penalty Legislative Action Alert that was published to death penalty abolition supporters.

Death Penalty Legislative Action Alert

Oregonians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty

Support Senate Bill 1018

SB 1018 creates a task force on the death penalty in Oregon and imposes a moratorium on executions until the time the task force submits a report.

It is critical that legislators hear from you within the next few days.

Below are the issues concerning SB 1018 and at the bottom which legislators it is important to contact.

The Issues:

Oregon’s death penalty law was passed in 1984. It has not been reviewed for effectiveness, accuracy, fairness or uniformity of application, cost, racial and socioeconomic factors, or whether there is continuing public support for having it.

Evidence exists of a change in both the application and support for the death penalty nationwide. Fewer death sentences are being given and fewer are being carried out. Questions have risen as to cruel and unusual manifestations of the methods such as lethal injection that are used in killing people. Several states have halted all executions for that reason, including California, Florida, and North Carolina. Dozens of states have considered, this year, resolutions to abolish their death penalties or to create commissions to study them. The state of New York’s death penalty was overturned by the New York Supreme Court and the legislature has not moved to reinstate it.

Oregon has not sentenced the "worst of the worst" to death, nor is the death penalty given evenly throughout the counties of Oregon. As is endemic throughout the nation, it is mostly the poorest and least able to help themselves who end up on death row.

It is appropriate that Oregon conduct a study of its death penalty. Oregon’s legislators and its people need to be educated about the death penalty so they can make an informed decision to either keep it or to replace it with existing alternatives to executions such as life without the possibility of parole and life with a minimum thirty-year sentence.

For more "Facts" about Oregon’s death penalty go to www.oadp.org/reports-facts.html You can also read the bill at http://www.leg.state.or.us/bills_laws/

What is being done:

The Senate Judiciary Committee has introduced SB 1018 as described above. The bill is attached to this email.

A steering committee consisting of representatives from Oregonians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, Oregon Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, ACLU, and other death penalty activists is meeting with Representative Chip Shields (D) to shepherd the bill through the legislative process.

SB 1018 must be scheduled for a hearing as the first step in the process. If a hearing has not been held prior to April 30, 2007 the bill will not move forward.

What you can do:

**These are the legislators who need to hear from you within the next few days.**

Express gratitude for her leadership in having S 1018 introduced by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Ask her to schedule hearings on SB 1018 and give reasons why you support the hearings.

Express gratitude for his leadership and support for SB 1018 and encourage him to continue his efforts to get hearings for the bill.

3. Call, write, or email your own State Senator or Representative and ask them to support holding hearings on SB 1018.

4. Contact friends, churches and clubs with the information and encourage them to do all of the above.

Thank you for your continuing interest in this critical matter of public interest.