Opinion ID: 1177355
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: constitutional amendment requires death or life imprisonment for aggravated murder

Text: Question: Shall the aggravated murder penalty be death upon certain findings by the jury, and be life imprisonment otherwise? Explanation: Amends state constitution. Requires that penalty for aggravated murder be death when a jury makes certain affirmative findings by a unanimous vote. The facts which must be found are to be determined by law. Requires life sentence with a minimum term in all other cases. The minimum term is to be provided by law. Petitioner challenges this ballot title as insufficient or unfair for several reasons. He argues that this ballot title fails to state the purpose of the measure, which he contends is to amend Article I, Sections 15 and 16 of the Oregon Constitution. He further argues that when this ballot title is read in conjunction with the companion initiative petition which would amend the statutory law to require a death penalty in some situations, it erroneously implies that the death penalty would be available only for a limited category of serious homicides; that this ballot measure title is sufficiently close to that for the companion statutory measure that it is likely to create confusion; [1] and it fails to warn the voters that the measure might permit modes of execution that are cruel or unusual, or vindictively imposed. He suggests the following ballot title: