State Supreme Court kills death penalty
SALEM (AP) —' The Oregon
Supreme Court on Tuesday
ruled that a death penalty law
adopted by voters in 1978 is
unconstitutional.
The unanimous decision
overturned death sentences im
posed on John Quinn and Ed
ward Warren, the first two peo
ple sentenced under the law,
and returned their cases to trial
courts for resentencing.
The decision also affects two
other convicted killers who have
been sentenced to death under
the law.
State law requires that
murder convictions carry life
prison terms if no death sen
tence is handed down
Republican legislators said
following the ruling that they
plan to propose a new death
penalty measure meeting the
court’s objections.
But they said it will be difficult
to get a bill approved by the
Democrat-controlled Legisla
ture.
The capital punishment law
was put on the ballot by initiative
petition after the 1977 Legisla
ture failed to approve a death
penalty measure.
The Supreme Court attacked
a provision of the law requiring
judges instead of juries to
decide whether capital punish
ment should be imposed.
The justices said the require
ment, done during a separate
hearing following a jury convic
Film series
previews war,
social protest
Social responsibility and al
ternative energy sources high
light this term's Environmental
Film Series sponsored by the
Survival Center.
“War Without Winners” will
be shown tonight in the EMU
Forum Room. The controversial
film includes interviews with re
tired government officials,
bomb assemblers and others.
The following Wednesday,
Jan. 28, physician John Burk
hardt, a member of Physicians
for Social Responsibility, will
discuss his recent trips to the
Pentagon. The slideshow and
discussion will deal with the
Pentagon's programs and
Burkhardt’s protests.
Future films will feature alter
native energy breakthroughs
and renewed recycling efforts.
All films begin at 8 p.m. Ad
mission is free.
IMPORTED
coffee
(Sb tea
By the'Pound or by the Cup
Kinko’s
764 E. 13th
344 .7894
Bean of the Month
Kenya
$4.45 lb.
Compare Our Prices
tion of murder, violates defen
dants’ rights under the Oregon
Constitution to a trial by jury on -
all aspects of criminal charges.
The ruling involves a change
in murder laws made by the
1971 Legislature.
The lawmakers eliminated
degrees of murder and enacted
a single statute defining murder
as killing done intentionally
"without any consideration or
deliberation,” the court said
By indirectly re-establishing a
crime of deliberate murder pun
ishable by death, the court said
in an opinion by Justice Jacob
Tanzer, “The initiative proposal
impermissibly places respons
ibility for finding the fact of the
greater mental state (delibera
tion) with the judge and not with
the jury.”
For that reason the law
violates the Oregon Constitu
tion’s provision "that a criminal
defendant is entitled to a trial by
jury of all of the facts constitut
ing the crime for which he has
been put in jeopardy," Tanzer
said.
He said the initative measure
“was drafted in apparent dis
regard of the amendments to
Oregon's murder statutes made
when there was no death pen
alty.
"Simply put, the resulting
statutory scheme is a constitu
tionally insufficient basis for im
position of an enhanced penal
ty” for murder, Tanzer said in
the 6-0 ruling.
Justice J.R. Campbell didn't
take part in the decision
because he was appointed to
the court after it heard oral ar
guments in the case.
Justice Thomas Tongue said
in a separate opinion that while
he agreed with the court’s
ruling, he would have held the
death penalty law violates
federal constitutional requir
ements handed down by the
U S. Supreme Court.
In another separate opinion,
Justice Edwin Peterson said no
law is enforceable that limits the
right to trial by jury in criminal
cases.
"The right of a jury trial as to
every element of a criminal pro
secution is an important right —
in some person’s lives, it is their
most important right, Peterson
said.”
Quinn, 21, was convicted of
the 1979 strangling death of
Matilda Strong, a 68-year-old
Portland woman.
Warren, 27, confessed last
year to killing two teen-agers in
Curry County. The victims were
19-year-old Coast Guardsman
Ricky Hemphill of Riverside,
Calif., and his girlfriend, Charla
Toma, 18, of Lincoln City.
The other State Penitentiary
inmates who are under death
sentences are Richard Bird, 21,
and Dennis Brooks, 27.
Bird was found guilty of the
September 1979 strangulation
death of 3-year-old Jessica
Clark of Scappoose
Brooks was convicted of the
October 1979 killing of Kitty Coy
of Chico, Calif., who had been
tied to a tree in the Mount Hood
National Forest and shot several
times in the head.
Thought it
■« back IN THE WATER
s^wffisagasBffrf
r*ciay> January 9o a> •»"»«*,„, [RlitD
--—-* at a theatre neai