SALEM, Ore. – A group in Oregon has filed a lawsuit against Democratic Gov. Kate Brown over her approach to granting clemency. The assembly of people consists of two district attorneys and families of three murder victims. They say her actions are unlawful as she’s freed nearly 1,000 people without properly notifying the victims or their families in advance.
The plaintiff prosecutors include Lane County’s Patricia Perlow and Linn County’s Doug Marteeny. They are also asking the judge to stifle Brown’s policy on commutations for people convicted of crimes as minors, Fox News reported.
“We are asking that the court compel the governor to follow the laws that are already in place,” Monique DeSpain, a lawyer for Perlow, Marteeny and the homicide victims’ relatives, told The Associated Press last week.
Perlow issued a statement in November blasting the governor over a clemency order freeing eight suspects from her district.
“Of those convicted, three were convicted of murder, two of sex crimes against children and three of robberies with weapons, including a stabbing and a failed attempt to shoot a customer in a store,” she said at the time.
Although the criminal defendants were younger than 18 at the time of their crimes, some of the actions were heinous and worthy of sentencing.
In 2002, Brian Hardegger was convicted for his role in murdering his own mother. He committed the homicide at the age of 17.
“Defendant and his father buried the victim, Hardegger’s mother, alive,” Perlow said. “When the victim tried to raise her head above the dirt, Hardegger pushed her head down with his foot so that he and his father could finish covering her up. Hardegger dug the hole beforehand.”
Perlow also used another horrific case as an example. It involved a 17-year-old, Connor Allen, who was convicted of first-degree sex abuse after sodomizing a 7-year-old, Fox reported.
One of the elements of the lawsuit is the assertion that Brown is trampling on victims rights.
“Victims of crime in Oregon have Constitutional and statutory rights that are being ignored by Gov. Brown, the Oregon Department of Corrections and the State Parole Board with a first priority to these offenders of a ‘meaningful opportunity to be released,’” Perlow said in her statement. “Victims of crime deserve the enforcement of their rights they fought so hard to have recognized.”
Marteeny claims that Brown’s clemencies are essentially “re-writing sentencing laws,” the Albany Democrat-Herald reported.
Brown’s office did not respond to press inquiries, saying it “generally does not comment on matters of pending litigation.”
