While some states, like Oklahoma and Texas, are addicted to the death penalty, Oregon has not carried out a state-sanctioned taking of another human's life in twenty-five years and a moratorium has been in effect since 2011.
Outgoing Oregon Governor, Democrat Kate Brown, has commuted the sentences of the seventeen people on Oregon's death row. "I have long believed that justice is not advanced by taking a life, and the state should not be in the business of executing people — even if a terrible crime placed them in prison," Brown said in a statement sent out in a press release. "This is a value that many Oregonians share."
Click here for more on Oregon's death row and the people whose sentences were commuted.
