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THE ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2021
For prisoners, a face-to-face appeal with Brown
Governor could commute
dozens of sentences
By NOELLE CROMBIE
The Oregonian
Last month, a convicted felon about three
years into an eight-year prison stint found
himself face to face — via Zoom — with
Gov. Kate Brown.
Brown was considering commuting Sean
Pen’s sentence for methamphetamine pos-
session, allowing for his almost immediate
release.
The governor impressed upon Pen, 33,
that her decision would come with restric-
tions typical for anyone on probation. Vio-
late them and he’d be back in prison to fi nish
out his sentence, she warned.
In their brief conversation as Pen sat in
an offi ce at the Eastern Oregon Correctional
Institution in Pendleton, the governor talked
with Pen about his life, his time in prison, his
plans for treatment and what he’d learned
from his experience behind bars.
Pen will walk out of prison next week.
His commutation comes as Brown under-
takes an extraordinary — and ongoing —
eff ort to reduce the prison sentences of doz-
ens of people in Oregon’s prisons.
She announced in October, for instance,
that she would review more than 200 juve-
nile cases for commutation, in some cases
making longtime prisoners immediately eli-
gible to pursue parole. Earlier this year, she
granted conditional commutations to 41
incarcerated people who helped fi ght his-
toric wildfi res last year.
In the meantime, her staff confi rmed
last week that Brown has met quietly with
11 incarcerated people over the past two
months, all of them by Zoom.
Leading advocates for rehabilitation,
including Pen’s lawyer Aliza Kaplan, have
praised Brown and recommended prisoners
for her consideration.
Some prosecutors and families of crime
victims have expressed outrage at what
they say is the lack of forewarning and
consultation.
The video chat with Pen fl oored the
Union County district attorney and a long-
time probation offi cer familiar with Pen’s
case. Neither were invited to the Zoom call
and both learned about Brown’s decision
after the fact.
Pushback from district attorneys
In a private meeting , about a dozen dis-
trict attorneys questioned two of the gov-
ernor’s lawyers about what they view as
a hasty approach to cutting short prison
sentences.
Mark Graves/The Oregonian
Aides to Gov. Kate Brown have said the governor wants to emphasize crime prevention and
rehabilitation over long and expensive prison sentences.
Brown’s aides have said the gover-
nor wants to emphasize crime prevention
and rehabilitation over long and expensive
prison sentences. Commutations are one of
the executive powers that rest exclusively
with the governor and she has delivered far
more than her predecessor, John Kitzhaber.
The purpose of meetings like the one with
Pen is to explain that Brown is “interested in
granting clemency only if they could agree to
additional conditions on their commutation
and release, in most cases related to receiv-
ing additional drug and alcohol treatment,”
said Charles Boyle, a Brown spokesman .
All commutations issued by Brown are
conditional, he said in an email to The Ore-
gonian . He noted that before the COVID-19
pandemic, Brown occasionally held face-to-
face meetings with commutation candidates
in her offi ce.
She may opt to speak directly with a
prisoner for a number of reasons, “includ-
ing to ask questions that will help inform
her decision, to emphasize the gravity
of this action, or to allow the applicant
the opportunity to agree to conditions of
release,” Boyle said.
It is not unheard of for governors to speak
or even meet with a person behind bars. In
one of his fi nal acts as governor, Kitzhaber
drove to Salem to meet with a 25-year-
old man who was serving 12 1/2 years for
attempted murder and granted him clemency.
But a look at Brown’s packed daily cal-
endar perhaps refl ects the depth of her
commitment.
The most recent spate of meetings with
incarcerated people came during a period
when she also met with a bank executive,
a top lobbyist in Washington, D.C., and
her own executive team. Brown, head of a
sprawling government bureaucracy, rarely
meets with ordinary Oregonians one-on-
one, making these conversations with pris-
oners all the more remarkable.
On the day she had a conference call with
Pen, for instance, Brown’s calendar shows
she met with state House Republican Leader
Christine Drazan, who was allocated the
same 30-minute slot the governor’s staff set
aside for the clemency meeting.
The following day, her calendar shows
another clemency meeting. It is unclear from
her calendar whether she spoke with a pris-
oner at that time. That day, she also met with
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee to discuss their
states’ vaccine mandates.
Friendly but fi rm
Kaplan, a Lewis & Clark Law School
professor whose law clinic has represented
many people seeking commutations, said
Brown is friendly but fi rm in the sessions.
The governor, herself a graduate of Lewis
& Clark Law School, stresses the stakes for
the prisoner but also takes time to learn
about them and their families, said Kaplan,
who attended Pen’s Zoom meeting and is
often present during the conversations.
The prisoners are often “starstruck” in
Brown’s presence, Kaplan said.
“She spends a lot of time on each case
in order to learn all there is to learn about
the person and the past and the future and I
think having the meetings whether on Zoom
now or prior is a way to let the person know
how serious she is about them not following
through on the rules,” Kaplan said.
Union County District Attorney Kelsie
McDaniel said she wishes Brown had shown
her the same courtesy as Pen, who has a long
record of drug and property crimes in La
Grande.
McDaniel said she was among the prose-
cutors who met recently with Brown’s gen-
eral counsel Dustin Buehler and another
Brown lawyer, Kevin Gleim.
She asked about the Oct. 11 meeting with
Pen and why Brown had taken time to meet
with Pen but not local authorities familiar
with his case. She said she knew Brown was
considering the commutation but learned
only later that the governor had decided to
grant it.
“Is this something we are doing now?”
McDaniel said she asked. “Are you going
to allow that for the victims and the DAs?
I have never been interviewed about a com-
mutation by the governor personally.”
McDaniel said Brown’s lawyers told her
that the governor met with Pen to “person-
ally impress” upon him the signifi cance of
her commutation “and the conditions that
were coming with it.”
“I asked what happens if he leaves treat-
ment or is unsuccessful?” she said. “The
answer I received was the governor has the
option to rescind the commutation.”
She said she asked Buehler and Gleim
how they would monitor Pen’s progress.
“They said the governor’s offi ce knows
when these people are unsuccessful,”
McDaniel said.
Pen was convicted in 2018 of possession
of methamphetamine.
He was originally charged with multiple
drug felonies involving methamphetamine
and oxycodone possession and delivery.
Prosecutors said the case involved a dealer
amount of methamphetamine.
Under his plea deal, he agreed to an eight-
year sentence. P rosecutors agreed to sus-
pend the sentence provided Pen got treat-
ment and met other conditions. As part of
the deal, he was allowed two minor proba-
tion violations, McDaniel said. The third
violation would send him to prison for the
full sentence, which is what ended up hap-
pening, she said.
The original indictment cites Pen’s per-
sistent involvement in similar crimes in
Union County and notes that the latest alle-
gations took place while he was already on
probation.
“Future eff orts to rehabilitate (Pen) will
not be successful and there exists a need to
ensure the security of the public,” the indict-
ment states.
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