Oregon Governor Kate Brown, who will leave office at the end of the year, commuted the sentences of all 17 inmates sentenced to death in the state , to life without the possibility of parole.
The Democratic politician said she decided to use her executive privilege to commute the sentences because she believes the death penalty is immoral.
"I have always believed that justice is not served by taking a life and the state should not execute people even if they were sent to prison because of a horrible crime," Brown said.
Brown will leave office in January after completing eight years in the post and was ineligible to run again.
In recent years, legal and ethical issues have been raised around the issue of the death penalty in the US, especially after some states have struggled to secure the poisonous substances used in executions.
Vicki Breeze-Iverson, the Republican leader of the Oregon House of Representatives, said Brown made her decision without consulting members of Congress or citizens.[/B] She added that "her decisions do not take into account the impact that victims and their families will suffer in the months and years ahead," recalling that Oregon has not had an execution since 1997.
In 2011, then-Governor John Kitzhaber announced a moratorium on executions. Nine years later, the corrections department closed the death row and moved the death row inmates to special or general prisons.
[/B][/B][/B]In recent years, the number of executions in the U.S. has dropped dramatically. In 1999 there were 98 executions in all states. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and various policy changes, that number dropped to 11 in 2021, the lowest since 1988.
Source: APE-MPA
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