The substantive provisions may once again reach the ballot box if the Legislature approves House Joint Resolution 7. Passage of HJR 7 would mean a referral to the voters in several separate pieces of the victims' rights amendments to the Oregon Constitution. To hear Bowman and PAC-UP tell it, children are being hurled into prison for stealing bicycles, and prosecutors have taken over the entire criminal justice system. The son of Cathy Lawler, a PAC-UP founder, was convicted for beating a man senseless with a baseball bat and leaving him permanently damaged. In fact, it is Brian Lawler's case for which Oregon appellate courts conclusively affirmed the constitutionality of Measure 11.
Criminals pick their own punishment, by their actions.
A couple years ago, I prosecuted a man who finally got what he had long deserved. In 1996, Judge Paula Brownhill gave Ralph Pettefer more than 40 years in prison after he was convicted of abducting and repeatedly raping a young woman who had trusted him to give her a ride home. Pettefer had already been twice convicted of almost identical crimes. If he had served the time to which he had been sentenced, he would still be in prison. Measure 11 has put some teeth back into Oregon's criminal laws.