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Conrad Wilson
Oregon Public BroadcastingConrad Wilson is a reporter and producer covering criminal justice and legal affairs for OPB. Prior to coming to OPB, he was a reporter at Minnesota Public Radio. Before that he ran the news department at an NPR affiliate in Colorado. His work has aired on Marketplace and NPR's Morning Edition and All Things Considered. He has also written for Mashable, The Oregonian, Business Week, City Pages and The Christian Science Monitor. Conrad earned a degree in international political economics and journalism from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.
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The ruling won’t immediately allow Oregon cities to begin penalizing unhoused people for resting on public property, due to a state law that puts limits on sweeping public camping bans.
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The change comes as a result of a 2021 class-action lawsuit that resulted in refunding $77,041 to 870 people currently in prison.
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A criminal charge has been dismissed against a U.S. Forest Service employee arrested in 2022 by a rural Oregon sheriff after a prescribed burn on federal land unexpectedly spread to private property and burned roughly 20 acres.
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In a 2-1 decision, the appeals court called Oregon’s public defense system a “Sixth Amendment nightmare,” referencing the part of the U.S. Constitution that requires the state to provide defense attorneys to those it charges with crimes if they cannot afford a lawyer.
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The state’s high court ruled Gov. Tina Kotek didn’t have the power to revoke a commutation after a person completed their sentence. The justices wrote that Terri Lee Brown’s “imprisonment is unlawful.” Kotek revoked Brown’s commutation last year.
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Nathaniel Cheney was arrested April 2, after he was indicted March 12 on two counts of damage to an electrical substation in Clackamas County in 2022.
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People caught by police with drugs will face misdemeanor charges starting Sept. 1.
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Gov. Tina Kotek’s announcement, though no surprise, makes certain Oregon’s drug decriminalization experiment is over.
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State estimates show 1,333 people will be convicted of drug possession and 533 could go to jail every year under House Bill 4002. The numbers suggest that the system Oregon lawmakers envisioned to replace Measure 110 — in which drug users can avoid criminal consequences through treatment — will only go so far.
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Under Ballot Measure 110, instead of arresting drug users, police give them a citation and point them towards treatment. Over three years in, there's a debate about whether it's succeeded or failed.
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The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Friday to hear a case out of Southern Oregon that could make sweeping policy changes to the way cities address homelessness and enforce rules around public camping.
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An Oregon judge says an ex-Alaska Airlines pilot accused of trying to cut the engines of a passenger flight can be released from jail pending trial.