Oregonians face death penalty—again
By Paul Ertelt
CM the Kmernld
This the
fourth of a
s / x - p a r t
series ex
a m i n i n #
statewide
measures
that will ap
pear on the Nov. 6 ballot. This
part explores ballot Measures 6
and 7.
On Nov. 6, Oregonians will
decide whether or not they want
a death penalty. It is a decision
they have made several times
before.
Throughout their history,
Oregon voters have flip-flopped
on capital punishment. In 1978,
voters passed a death penalty
initiative by a margin of 64
percent.
But that initiative was
declared unconstitutional in
1981 by the Oregon Supreme
Court. That measure left the
decision of invoking the death
penalty to the judge, but the
high court ruled that the accus
ed had the right to .a jury deci
sion on the sentence. '
Ballot Measures 6 and 7, if
passed by the voters, would
make Oregon the 39th state with
a death penalty. Ballot Measure
6 would amend the Oregon
Constitution to exempt ag
gravated murder from constitu
tional prohibitions against cryel
and unusual, vindictive and
disproportionate punishments.
Measure 7 would require that
the death penalty be meted out
for aggravated murder under
three conditions: when a
unanimous jury finds that the
murderer intended to kill the
victim, probably is a continuing
threat to society, and had
responded unreasonably to any
provocation by the deceased.
Death would be administered
by lethal injection. Aggravated
murder committed under other
circumstances would bring a
penalty of 30 years imprison
ment without parole.
Sponsors of the measures
claim the death penalty would
act as a deterrent, and prevent
future murders.
“We are the people who want
to save lives.’’ says Dedi
Streich, chair of Concerned
Oregonians for Justice, which
sponsored the measures. “And
we believe the deterrent factor
of the death penalty does save
lives.”
But University psychology
Frof. Robert Mauro counters
that “there is no valid social
science research that shows a
deterrent effect for the death
penalty.”
Mauro cited research done by
Thorsten Sellin, which in
dicated that reinstating the
death penalty had no significant
impact on homicide rates. He
also pointed to research done by
sociologist William Bowers that
indicated homicides actually
rise as executions rise.
“What often happens is you
get a decrease in homicides on
the day of or on the day before
the execution, and after that
there’s an increase,” he says.
The only study that shows a
deterrent effect of the death
penalty has been discredited
because it was based on FBI
murder statistics compiled durr
ing the 1930s. The FBI admits
its statistics were inaccurate,
Mauro says.
But Streich says that social
scientists'have failed to con
clusively rule out the deterrent
effect and says anecdotal
evidence does show a link bet
ween deterrence and the death
penalty.
Streich points to a 1980 Lane
County case. Ronald Reynolds,
was indicted for. aggravated
assault and theft after he beat a
minister and stole his car.
During his trial, Reynolds
said he did not kill the minister
because he feared the death
penalty, Streich says.
“We believe the
deterrent factor of
the death penalty
does save lives. **
— Dedi Streich
Streich also cites a study done
by the California . Attorney
General’s Office during the 16
years when capital punishment
was prohibited in that state.
During that period, 1964
through 1980, homicides in
creased by 240 percent, after ad
justments were made for
population increases, she says.
The government, however,
has no right to take a life and if
an innocent person is executed,
that decision is irrevocable,
says David Fidanque, associate
director of the American Civil
Liberties Union of Oregon.
“We have safeguards built in
to our two measures that would
make executing the wrong per
son impossible,” Streich says.
Before the death penalty could
be handed down, two juries
would have to be convinced
“beyond a shadow of a doubt,”
she says. The first would deter
mine guilt and the second
would establish whether the
three criteria for the sentence
were present.
Opponents of the measures
say that the death penalty has
been unevenly administered,
with minorities making up a
disproportionate share of the
death row population.
While at Stanford University,
Mauro and Samuel Gross
studied 340 death sentences in
eight states, including Florida,
Georgia and Illinois. Their fin-,
dings showed that death
sentences were more common
when the victim was white than
when the- victim was.black.
Even though Oregon has a
small minority population, with
blacks only making up about 1
percent of the population,
discrimination is still a problem
here,'Fidanque says.
! ‘Oregon does have one of the
highest rates of incarceration of
minority per capita of any state
in the nation,” Fidanque says.
“What We’re talking about here
is not overt discrimination. It’s
a very subtle discrimination.”
Discrimination is a problem,
Streich- admits, blit says that
minorities are most often the
victims of violent crimes and
would therefore benefit if a
death penalty decreased
homicides.
According to the FBI’s
Uniform Crime Report, the
chances of a white male being
murdered are one in 164, while
the chances for a nonwhite male
are one in 28, she says.
Fidanque admits that most
Oregonians support the death
penalty, but warns that they
should take a closer look- at
Measure 6. This measure would
exempt the death penalty from
any protections against ar
bitrary death penalties.
But there would still be
federal protections from ar
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bitrary executions, Streich says.
In 1972, in a 5-4 decision, the
U S. Supreme Court ruled that
arbitrarily imposed death
sentences were
unconstitutional.
Streich insists that the
original ballot measure did not
include the reference to
disproportionate penalties, but
“Only the poor get
executed. The
wealthy never are.”
— Clarence Gladden
it was added at the insistence of
the Oregon Supreme Court.
She also said her group was
advised by a former chief justice
of the court that the constitu
tional changes in Measure 6
w'ere necessary to prevent the
statutory measure from being
thrown out by the court.
“Oregon is the only state that
has ever repealed the death
penalty by vote of the people,”
Fidanque says. “Oregon has
done it twice, in 1914 and
1964.”
The death penalty was
reinstated by initiative in 1920,
and its abolition was voted
down in 1958. Between 1903,
when the Legislature required
that all executions be held at the
state penitentiary, and 1964,
when it was abolished, 92 peo
ple received death sentences
and 58 were eventually
executed.
“Only the poor get executed.
The wealthy never are,”
Clarence Gladden, former
warden of the Oregon state
penitentiary, noted just before
the death penalty was
abolished.
But there are exceptions.
Portland attorney James Finch
was executed in 1909 for
shooting a colleague.
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