Street roots., April 22, 2016, Page 10, Image 10

Street Roots • April 22-28, 2016
PROSECUTOR, from page 5
judge Neal Lemery. He served as the
Tillamook County District Attorney before
taking the bench to preside over courtrooms
in several of Oregon’s coastal communities.
“When you take a felony case to grand
jury, the jurors say ‘OK.’ They don’t know
the law,” he said. “The old joke is: The DA
can get a grand jury to indict a ham
sandwich.”
But keeping the grand jury process
behind closed doors isn’t the only priority of
the prosecutors’ lobby.
“As a collective, the District Attorneys
Association has a pretty consistent history
of opposing progressive criminal justice
reforms,” Rogers said.
In addition to its opposition to changes to
mandatory minimum sentences, he said,
“we’ve seen relative inaction around issues
of trying to fix racial disparity within the
system.”
Oregon Justice Resource Center, in part,
works to exonerate those who have been
wrongly convicted. It’s director, Singh, said
the Oregon District Attorneys Association,
through the Multnomah County District
Attorney’s Office, initially came out against
amendments to a statute that allows
individuals who have been convicted in
Page 11
News
Oregon access to DNA testing to prove their reported on how decisions made by
prosecutors have a tremendous impact on
innocence.
the local criminal justice system, from the
“The Oregon Department of Justice, the
office’s focus on the issuance of thousands
Chiefs of Police, advocacy organizations and
of non-violent quality-of-life charges that
an unanimous legislature all supported the
disproportionately affect
amendments,” said
communities of color,
Singh.
"District attorneys oppose
including people
He said eventually,
experiencing
the district attorneys
any legislation that will
homelessness and
group went neutral on
reduce their power base in
mental illness, to the
the bill, but because of
the courtroom and in the
practice of trying
its initial opposition,
plea-bargaining process.”1
juveniles as adults
getting the amendments
GAIL MEYER under Measure 11, only
out of committee was a
OREGON CRIMINAL DEFENSE LAWYERS
challenge.
ASSOCIATION to have them plead
guilty to a lesser crime.
“District attorneys
“How would Rod
oppose any legislation
(Underhill) characterize his leadership in
that will reduce their power base in the
addressing the severe racial disparity in
courtroom and in the plea-bargaining
process,” said Meyer.
Multnomah County’s criminal justice
system?” Rogers asked. “The numbers are
And the scales of justice are already
terrible and the district attorney has the
tipped in the prosecutors favor.
Lemery said district attorneys have police most power in the system to address the
racial disparity. He continues to prosecute
resources, a crime lab and larger budget at
black people for low-level offenses at
their disposal when building a case. In
seriously disproportionate rates. This is not
contrast, public defenders have huge
only incredibly damaging to individuals and
caseloads and very limited resources.
our community, but serves little to no public
District attorneys are also paid
safety value.”
substantially higher salaries than public
As county and city officials grapple with
defenders.
an inequitable criminal justice system that
In recent weeks, Street Roots has
continues to suffer from dwindling
resources, Director of Metropolitan Public
Defenders Lane Borg said it’s time to take
“a hard look” at whether or not some low-
level charges should be filed. Borg also took
part in the panel discussion at City Club of
Portland in March.
Multnomah County Chair Deborah
Kafoury recently announced proposals to
cut the number of beds at county jails, but
absent from public discussion has been the
prosecutorial policies that can send people
to those beds in the first place.
“There are some very serious issues that
we don’t really get to talk about as voters or
as the public, because we haven’t had a
contested DA race in this county for, I don’t
know how long, more than 30 years?”
Rogers said.
His agency’s report recommends that
district attorneys across Oregon be held
accountable for their policies and practices.
It also encourages more challengers in
district attorney races and asks that the
governor “lift the selection process out of
secrecy” and appoint district attorneys who
are prepared to modernize and reform the
criminal justice system.
emily @streetroots. org
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