By Doug Marteeny
Statewide, since the onset of COVID-19, Gov. Kate Brown has commuted nearly 1,000 felons back into our communities, 54 in Linn County alone.
Releasing felons at this rate has de facto created a new sentencing scheme. Under this new scheme, many of the careful deliberate decisions of our local juries and judges are presented to the sentencing Caesar in Salem (Gov. Brown) who raises or lowers her commutation thumb determining whether our communities will be condemned to more crime.
Recently, repeat offender Pablo Francisco, was driving 50 mph in a 25 mph neighborhood, blowing through stop signs, all while intoxicated. He was running from police in a stolen car.
Once caught, he was put into a jail cell where he smeared his excrement onto the cell walls. Local law enforcement wouldn’t have had to clean up this mess but for the fact that Gov. Brown had just released Mr. Francisco from prison early by commuting two prior car theft convictions.
Despite his previous 17 criminal convictions, Gov. Brown deemed that Mr. Francisco, as she put it, “did not present an unacceptable safety, security, or compliance risk to the community.”
Mr. Francisco was prosecuted yet again for this latest criminal escapade. A jury and judge again carefully considered all relevant circumstances and again ordered Mr. Francisco back to prison. Just like last time, the law-abiding taxpayer paid the bill for this process.
Adding insult to injury, Mr. Francisco has again petitioned the governor for a commutation. Mr. Francisco’s request should have been dead on arrival.
Instead, Gov. Brown has asked my office to again submit a formal response to Mr. Francisco’s request. The governor’s blatant disregard for local resources and efforts is astonishing.
Soft-on-crime governance has real consequences for our neighborhoods and our local criminal justice infrastructure.
Giving nearly a thousand commutations is nothing short of an abuse of the commutation power. This abuse of power is absolutely undercutting public safety efforts in our communities.
– Doug Marteeny is Linn County District Attorney.