Gov. Brown will commute all remaining death sentences to life in prison

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

46% : The state's constitution didn't originally include the death penalty, according to a summary on the Oregon Department of Corrections website, but it was adopted by statute in 1864.
45% : Voters again repealed the death penalty in 1964, then re-approved it in 1978, albeit by statute rather than constitutional amendment.
43% : The clemency order takes effect Wednesday and will apply to all 17 people currently on Oregon's death row, according to the governor's office, and will leave the state without anyone facing execution.
41% : SB 1013 wasn't intended to be retroactive, but it prompted the Oregon Supreme Court to strike down an inmate's death sentence last year, arguing that the passage of the law altered the "prevailing social standards" for capital punishment in the state.
40% : The Oregon Supreme Court struck down the statute in 1981, but voters approved a new constitutional amendment to reinstate the death penalty in 1984.
37% : In a press conference at the time, Kitzhaber said the death penalty was morally wrong and that he regretted having allowed two executions in 1996 and 1997 during his prior term as governor - the only executions that the state has carried out in the past 50 years.
37% : Brown has granted several high-profile commutations in the past - some of which have drawn intense criticism - but she drew a distinction regarding the death penalty clemency, declaring that her prior commutations were granted to individuals who demonstrated "extraordinary growth and rehabilitation," but that this week's order is purely in recognition that "the death penalty is immoral."
35% : Brown said in a statement that her commutation order is "consistent with the near abolition of the death penalty" achieved under SB 1013.
29% : Although the death penalty is legal in Oregon, the state has not executed anyone since 1997, and throughout her seven years as governor, Brown has continued a moratorium on executions that her predecessor put in place.
26% : Oregon's death penalty was further curtailed in 2019 when Brown signed Senate Bill 1013 into law, which substantially shortened the list of crimes that could qualify as aggravated murder, the only crime for which prosecutors can seek the death penalty.

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