Defense lawyers delete the decriminalization law, ask the legislators to give more discretion for judges

In 2024, the legislators spent a large part of their session, which were decriminalized by the drugs, which were decriminalized by measure 110, which the voters passed in 2020.

Despite this pendulum swing, the Oregon Criminal Defense Lawyers Association called for the House Justice Committee to support laws that would enable the judges to reduce many offenses to violations at the time of conviction.

The OCDLA hired the house law 2469, which not only made changes to the legal proceedings and the use of the Grand Jury records, but would also authorize the court to enter a judgment for a violation of class A if a person is convicted of an offense. “(A violation of class A is similar to a traffic embroidery.)

In an e -mail, Mae Lee Browning, the lobbyist's lobbyist, believe that the defenders of the defense lawyers believe that the reduction of an offense is justified in many cases and has the additional advantage that OCDLA, according to a large number of accused, would not be reduced by a lawyer.

“What crimes need To be in our criminal system? “, Says Browning.” What is our resources good? What about the 19-year-old who has just played around just being a young person and being charged with a criminal violation?

“She is a young person without a criminal record. Criminal Trespass 2 is a C. There was no damage and nobody was hurt. Do we really have to charge this “crime”, wait for a public defender to be appointed and to go back to court to disturb their school or job? ”

(The Oregon judicial department informed the legislators at the beginning of this year that the submission of offenses last year rose by 17% and is expected to increase by 38% for Biennium.)

According to February 26, the Ocdla agreed with concerns from the Oregon district prosecutor that some offenses such as Duii, domestic violence and other crime should not be considered to reduce violations, and the group found that the reduction should only take place if a judge was not automatically appropriate, not automatically.

Amanda Nadell, deputy deputy administrative prosecutor of Multnomah County, stated on behalf of the Oregon district prosecutor that the prosecutors had given the judges such a discretion, since the court would give up the ability to fold the convicted party to reimburse or or the conditions of probation.

While the OCDLA and the public prosecutor alternately argued their different theories of criminal judiciary about a number of draft laws, Ocdla pulled another hearing on February 26 from another hearing. House Bill 2640 would have gone further than allowing judges to allow judges. Instead, the law proposed numerous joint offenses, including criminal violations, criminal nonsense and theft of “basic needs” against violations. These “basic needs” included food, water, medical care, planning and tents.

Here is a summary of the invoice:

The Northwest Grocery Retail Association, on behalf of itself and a variety of other corporate groups, made a certificate against the law.

HB 2640 also proposed to increase the bar for a conviction for spitting a public security officer by adding a language to the current statute due to severe harassment to determine that the saliva must “create the risk of spreading transferable diseases”.

“This proves whether a person has caused a significant risk of transfer a transferable disease is a complex and expensive undertaking,” Nick Hunter, Sheriff of Marion County, noted in written statements. The Oregon Firefighters' Association. The Oregon State Firefighters Association and the Oregon Association of Police Chiefs have opposed the sheriff against this section of the law.

According to Browning, the lobbyist of the group, the group has decided to draw HB 2640 to give the Justice Committee more time to hear a further draft law to raise witnesses, and because the legislators signal that they were more interested in giving judges more scope than just a list of criminal offenses.

“Some [lawmakers] I felt more comfortable with our proposal in HB 2469, which gives the judge discretion to reduce certain offenses to violations, ”says Browning. “This is what we choose the judge – judge and exercise their discretion.

“Based on the opposition statements for some of our legislative regulations, they do not seem to support the judges who have such discretion,” she adds.

Browning says HB 2640 is dead.

This story was produced by the Oregon Journalism ProjectA non -profit newsroom in rural oregon.