Hundreds of cases may need to be retried
By Terry Murry on Tuesday, January 3rd, 2023 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
SALEM – The Oregon Supreme Court ruled Friday that the hundreds of criminal cases decided in Oregon by nonunanimous verdicts need to be tried again. While the U.S. Supreme Court, in its Ramos ruling, said that cases from 2020 on had to be the result of unanimous verdicts, it did not make the order retroactive. In this area, at least three cases that fell under the umbrella as needing to be retried have already been tried again.
The Oregon Supreme Court decided the federal ruling did not go far enough. SCOTUS said that if states desired to make its ruling retroactive they could do so. Oregon’s high court decided to so order.
“In reaching that conclusion, the court recognized that its decision would likely lead to the reexamination of many judgements in other cases that had become final years or decades prior,” the written decision states.
The order said that denying the constitutional right of a unanimous verdict resulted in criminal trials that lacked the fairness that the court expects in the administration of justice.
Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum welcomed the decision. She said it impacts as many as 400 cases.
“I am very grateful to both of our state appellate courts for expediting this important issue of retroactivity of the Ramos ruling,” she said. “It was a critical piece of this complex process of undoing a rule that should never have been enacted in the first place – now nearly 90 years ago. I stand committed to eradicating inequities and ensuring fairness and impartiality in the delivery of justice in our state.”
The Oregon District Attorneys Association issued a news release stating that retrying old cases can be challenging if not impossible. ODAA also expressed concern for the victims of the crimes.
“Many of these cases that will be forced to be retried are violent person crimes, and will cause significant victim re-traumatization,” the release stated. “We must ensure that these victims, many of whom are women and children, need not face the terror of testifying once again before their abusers.”
