Opinion ID: 1179846
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Comparative Review of Plea Agreements

Text: Defendant argues that this court should determine whether he was unfairly denied a plea offer when his situation is compared to that of other defendants charged with aggravated murder throughout the state. He asserts that ORS 163.150(1)(g) should be interpreted to require state-wide proportionality review. This court recently has rejected an identical contention related to comparative sentence review. State v. Montez, supra, 309 Or. at 607, 789 P.2d 1352; State v. Wagner, 305 Or. 115, 169-71, 752 P.2d 1136 (1988), vacated and remanded on other grounds 492 U.S. 914, 109 S.Ct. 3235, 106 L.Ed.2d 583 (1989). We decline defendant's invitation to attempt to inquire into the proportionalityif that is the correct wordin the availability of plea bargaining, for the same reasons expressed in our recent cases discussing proportionality review of sentences. Defendant also relies on the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. In State v. Farrar, supra, 309 Or. at 140, 786 P.2d 161, we concluded that under Article I, section 20, of the Oregon Constitution, the appropriate persons for the analysis of disparate treatment are those who have been charged in [the same county] with aggravated murder[.] Defendant makes no separate argument as to why the result would be any different under the Fourteenth Amendment. See State v. Freeland, supra, 295 Or. at 370, 667 P.2d 509 (for most purposes, state and federal equal protection analysis will coincide); State v. Clark, supra, 291 Or. at 243, 630 P.2d 810 (same). Defendant does not argue that any other defendant charged with aggravated murder in Douglas County received preferential treatment in plea discussions. Moreover, even were we inclined to review for such proportionality, no adequate record exists here for such a review. Defendant argues that, if his case is compared to those of other defendants throughout the state who faced the death penalty, it will be apparent that he was unfairly denied a plea offer. However, the extent of the record here is a list of the status of aggravated murder/death penalty cases compiled by the State Court Administrator's Office in June 1989. Defendant does not explain how this court is to compare his case with the cases of the other defendants on that list merely by looking at a list of names and dispositions. Defendant bears the burden of showing disparate treatment. See City of Salem v. Bruner, 299 Or. 262, 271, 702 P.2d 70 (1985) (defendant must show how the choice of procedure was administered and that the choice was a purely haphazard one); State v. Clark, supra, 291 Or. at 243, 630 P.2d 810 (the defendant must make showing). Defendant has not met that burden.