![]() Don't be misled about efforts to abolish truth in sentencing John Foote and Joshua Marquis October 22 2020 West Linn Tidings The dominant voices in the Democratic Party seek to overturn all the pro-victim rights measures that voters in Oregon and Clackamas County overwhelmingly voted into our state constitution. As Oregon becomes an increasingly one-party state, it becomes even more important that legislators are as independent as possible. As long time Democrats and long term elected District Attorneys in Oregon, we are very concerned that the extremes of the Democratic Party have out-shouted more moderate voices on criminal justice in Oregon. The dominant voices in the Democratic Party seek to overturn all the pro-victim rights measures that voters in Oregon and Clackamas County overwhelmingly voted into our state constitution. But West Linn/Tualatin Democratic State Representative Rachel Prusak, in her first term in the legislature, voted at every opportunity to choose criminals over victims. She voted to repeal truth-in-sentencing laws and voted to functionally abolish capital punishment with her votes on SB 1008 and SB 1013 in 2019. She voted to cripple any possibility of a "true life" sentence for the worst murderers and voted to gut adult treatment for the most violent crimes committed by older teenagers. Prusak has chosen to attack her challenger, West Linn native Kelly Sloop, for daring to raise questions about Prusak's extreme soft-on-crime voting record. Yet she displays either ignorance at what those votes meant, or she willfully voted to go easier on criminals, in deference to the current lords of her party. Prusak claims that one of the worst murderers in recent history, Max Train Killer Jeremy Christian, is in fact serving a "true life" sentence. That is simply false. We have both defended, and prosecuted capital (death penalty) murder cases. Because of Prusak and others, the death penalty possibility was yanked away in the middle of the Christian case. Clackamas County voters remember what may be Oregon's worst murderer, Dayton Leroy Rodgers. After being repeatedly sentenced to death for torturing and murdering seven women, yet if some trial level judge rules one his many lawyers fumbled at some point, and orders a new trial, then both the death penalty and "true life" are off the table. It is conceivable this butcher might actually be eligible for release on parole if that happens. Thanks, Representative Prusak... Victims and their families, meanwhile, are left asking for justice for the crimes committed against them. Rachel Prusak and others have denied them justice in some of their darkest hours. One need only look at months of violent rioting, arson, assault, even murder in downtown Portland to see what it looks like when government looks like when it abdicates to the mob. And when politicians like Rachel Prusak abdicate to the criminals over crime victims and their families, we all lose. John Foote has served as Clackamas County district attorney since 2000. Joshua Marquis was Clatsop County district attorney from 1994-2018. ### Comments are closed.
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