The concept of a 2022 bill to address wrongful convictions in Oregon was simple: Pay people $65,000 for each year they spent in prison if their convictions were later overturned due to likely innocence. That hasn’t happened in reality.
Instead, the Oregon Department of Justice has opposed payouts in most of the 40 cases where someone is seeking compensation under the law.
Oregon state Sen. Deb Patterson D-Salem, left, talks with Sen. Kim Thatcher, R-Keizer, on the Senate floor, March 1, 2024, at the Oregon state Capitol in Salem, Ore.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
“That’s certainly not how we intended it,” Republican state Sen. Kim Thatcher of Keizer said.
Thatcher is co-sponsor on a bipartisan bill before Oregon lawmakers this session that aims to get money to wrongfully convicted people faster. It would set stricter guidelines for when the state Department of Justice should challenge payouts and require the agency to acknowledge new evidence of innocence rather than simply reviewing the original prosecution. In Thatcher’s view, that will get money to people faster if they’ve been harmed by the criminal justice system.
In 2022, no Oregon lawmaker voted against the compensation bill. This year’s bill, Senate Bill 1007, so far has no legislative opposition either, according to Thatcher, and a wide array of Republicans and Democrats want to see changes.
“I still don’t think it makes up for all of it, but it would help a person who has been wrongfully incarcerated to get back on their feet,” Thatcher said.
There are many notable cases of exonerees in Oregon who have not been paid for their wrongful convictions, such as Earl Bain, a disabled combat veteran who said being denied payment after serving time in jail was like “levels of hell that most people can’t even fathom.” They also include Frank Gable, who served roughly 30 years for the killing of a state prison official before a federal appeals court overturned his conviction. Oregon also imprisoned farmworker Santiago Ventura Morales for around five years for a murder he didn’t commit. Despite another person eventually being identified as a possible suspect, law enforcement did not pursue it further and Ventura Morales hasn’t been compensated.
Jesse Johnson relaxes at a hotel in Portland, Ore., on Sept. 8, 2023, days after his release from Marion County Jail in Oregon. Johnson spent 25 years in prison and police custody for the the 1998 murder of Harriet Thompson, a murder he consistently denied committing.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
Jesse Lee Johnson hasn’t been paid either. Johnson, a Black man from Arkansas, spent roughly 25 years behind bars for a 1998 murder in Salem. He was the subject of the first season of OPB’s investigative podcast, Hush, which revealed new evidence pointing to a white male suspect fleeing the scene of the murder. Despite that evidence and many other factors pointing away from Johnson, he has not been paid under the Oregon law in part because his attorneys have yet to file a claim.
In many cases, exonerees in Oregon leave prison with little to no support. Johnson, for example, received zero dollars when he was released from the Marion County Jail in 2023. Despite an appeals court overturning Johnson’s conviction in 2021, prosecutors kept him imprisoned for roughly two years longer while they debated taking him back to trial. The 64-year-old now lives in Arkansas and makes ends meet with part-time work and Supplemental Security Income payments from the federal government.
“The prior attorney general (Ellen Rosenblum), she really viewed her role as the defender of the state,” said Janis Puracal of the Forensic Justice Project. “Anytime the state got sued or there was a claim against the state, she viewed the role of her office to fight that claim at all costs.”
Puracal has been an advocate for payments to wrongfully convicted people in Oregon. She noted that other states with similar laws, such as Idaho, have not dragged out payments through extensive legal fights.
“The attorney general in Idaho walked hand-in-hand with exonerees to court,” Puracal said. “They agreed to relief and those exonerees got everything they were entitled to under Idaho’s statute.”
Thatcher agreed, saying Oregon’s approach to wrongful convictions defies typical red-state, blue-state expectations when compared to Idaho on this issue.
“It’s like they’re fighting it at every turn,” Thatcher said, “which I think is very odd for Oregon.”
Rep. Dan Rayfield, D-District 16, left, and Rep. Julie Fahey, D-District 14, give a thumbs-up during a vote at the House of Representatives the Oregon State Capitol in Salem, March 20, 2023.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
While the proposed Oregon bill has bipartisan support from lawmakers, how the Department of Justice addresses wrongful conviction claims will reside with Attorney General Dan Rayfield, who took office in January.
“We recognize that the process to provide compensation to the people who have been exonerated is too slow,” Rayfield said in a statement. “While we can and must create efficiencies, there are still some cases that will take time to identify what justice looks like under the law due to the factors of their case and the eligibility requirements.”
Both Thatcher and Rayfield said lawmakers and DOJ staff are currently in discussions with each other to shape the bill in a way the DOJ can carry out as lawmakers intended.
Correction: A previous version of this story misspelled Earl Bain’s name. OPB regrets the error.
