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Volume LII • Number 24
‘City
www.portlandobserver.com
of
Roses’ Wednesday • December 21, 2022
Committed to Cultural Diversity
17 People From Death Row to Life in Prison
Governor Kate Brown in office
Gov. Kate Brown
commuted all of her
state's death sentences
AP- Gov. Kate Brown’s decision to com-
mute all of the state’s 17 death sentences
and dismantle the state’s execution cham-
ber has some, including a former prison
superintendent-turned-abolitionist, lauding
the move as the humane choice. Brown is
a Democrat with less than a month remain-
ing in office.
Others, including a small city mayor
whose town was left scarred by a fatal bank
bombing, see the change as a derailment of
justice. While Oregon has long wrestled
with its position on capital punishment —
voters have alternately abolished and rein-
stated it several times over the past century
— in recent years the state’s Department
of Corrections has been phasing out death
row and the Legislature has passed a law
narrowing the circumstances in which the
death sentence can be imposed. Brown
signed Senate Bill 1013 in 2019.
Brown’s order, which took effect on De-
cember 14th and changes the 17 inmates’
death sentences to life in prison without
the possibility of parole, cites that state law
along with “the declining support for the
death penalty in Oregon” as part of the im-
petus behind her decision.
The former superintendent of the Oregon
State Penitentiary, Frank Thompson, who
oversaw the state’s two most recent execu-
tions in 1996 and 1997, has pushed for re-
pealing the death penalty since leaving the
position. He testified in favor of SB 1013
and welcomed Brown’s announcement.
In a phone interview with The Associated
Press, Thompson described shouldering
the “huge responsibility” of overhauling
Continued on Page 10
New Lawsuit Claims Racist Destruction and Displacement
Oregon lawsuit
spotlights
destruction of Black
neighborhoods
(AP) - A home that was a fixture of
Bobby Fouther’s childhood is now a park-
ing lot, the two-story, shingle-sided house
having been demolished in the 1970s
along with many other properties in a pre-
dominantly Black neighborhood of Port-
land, Oregon.
“Growing up there was just all about
love,” Fouther said.
Fouther and his sister, Elizabeth
Fouther-Branch, are now among 26 Black
people who either lived in the neighbor-
hood or are descendants of former resi-
Continued on Page 4
In these photos provided by the Fouther Family Archives and Ariel Kane are Elizabeth Fouther-Branch and Bobby Fouther as
children standing in front of their great-aunt’s home and in 2021 standing in the front of the parking lot where the house
used to stand in Portland, Ore. The siblings are now among 26 Black people who either lived in the neighborhood or who are
descendants of former residents who are suing Portland, the city's economic and urban development agency and Legacy
Emanuel Hospital for the "racist" destruction of the homes and forced displacement. (Della Williams/Fouther Family Archives
and Ariel Kane via AP)