Justia Constitutional Law Opinion Summaries

Petitioner Martin Johnson was convicted of eight counts of aggravated murder and sentenced to death. After an unsuccessful direct appeal, petitioner sought post-conviction relief, arguing (among other things) ineffective assistance of trial counsel. At the post-conviction hearing, petitioner was represented by counsel. He also filed more than 100 pro se motions, totaling more than 6,000 single-spaced pages of argument. The post-conviction court refused to accept most of those pro se filings because they were not signed by counsel, but allowed others, along with the claims raised by petitioner’s attorneys. The court ultimately determined that petitioner had received inadequate and ineffective assistance of trial counsel during the guilt phase of his aggravated murder trial. The court vacated his convictions and remanded the case for a new trial. The issue this case presented for the Supreme Court's review was whether a petitioner in a post-conviction appeal is entitled both to be represented by counsel and to appear pro se. The Court of Appeals held that, under the Oregon Supreme Court’s decision in "Church v. Gladden," (417 P2d 993 (1966)), a post-conviction petitioner is entitled to be represented by counsel on appeal and, in the same appeal, to file any motions on his own behalf that his counsel has declined to file, provided the petitioner has a good faith and objectively reasonable basis for believing that competent counsel would have filed such motions. The Supreme Court concluded that nothing in the Church opinion could "be fairly understood to state an exception to the requirement of ORS 9.320 that represented parties ordinarily must appear through counsel. And nothing in the opinion sanctions the sort of hybrid representation that permits a post-conviction petitioner to be represented by counsel and, at the same time, flood the court with pro se motions and other requests for relief any time the petitioner disagrees with counsel’s prosecution of the case. Church says no more than this: If a post-conviction petitioner’s attorney fails to assert a ground for relief, the petitioner must bring that fact to the attention of the court to avoid the effect of ORS 138.550(3)." View "Johnson v. Premo" on Justia Law

Defendant was found guilty of 20 counts of second-degree animal neglect. The issue on appeal to the Supreme Court in this case was whether defendant was guilty of 20 separately punishable offenses, which turned on the question whether animals are "victims" for the purposes of the anti-merger statute. The trial court concluded that, because only people can be victims within the meaning of that statute, defendant had committed only one punishable offense. The court merged the 20 counts into a single conviction for second-degree animal neglect. On appeal, the Court of Appeals concluded that animals can be victims within the meaning of the anti-merger statute and, accordingly, reversed and remanded for entry of a judgment of conviction on each of the 20 counts and for resentencing. The Supreme Court agreed with the Court of Appeals and affirmed. View "Oregon v. Nix" on Justia Law

Defendant was convicted of possession of marijuana and methamphetamine after police officers stopped him and discovered those controlled substances on him. The trial court concluded that the officer who stopped defendant had a reasonable suspicion that defendant was involved in criminal drug activity and denied defendant’s motion to suppress evidence of the drugs. The Court of Appeals reversed, holding that the officer did not have a reasonable suspicion of drug activity. The issue this case presented to the Supreme Court was whether, at the time of the stop, the officer had a reasonable suspicion that defendant was involved in criminal drug activity and, particularly: (1) whether the officer who stopped defendant could rely on factual information provided to him by other officers to establish "reasonable suspicion;" and (2) whether the officer’s observation that defendant appeared to be under the influence of methamphetamine was sufficient to establish "reasonable suspicion" that defendant had committed the crime of possession of methamphetamine when considered under the totality of the circumstances. The Supreme Court answered those questions in the affirmative, reversed the decision of the Court of Appeals, and affirmed the trial court. View "Oregon v. Holdorf" on Justia Law

The issue presented in these two consolidated cases centered on the meaning of the term "use" in ORS 166.220(1)(a): "a person commits the crime of unlawful use of a weapon if he or she '[a]ttempts to use unlawfully against another, or carries or possesses with intent to use unlawfully against another, any dangerous or deadly weapon.'" Defendants contend that the statute applied only when a person carries or possesses a weapon with the intent to "use" the weapon by actually employing it to injure another. The state argued that the statute also applied when a person carries or possesses a weapon with intent to "use" it to threaten or menace another unlawfully, without necessarily intending to injure the other person. The trial courts agreed with the state, as did the Court of Appeals. Finding no reversible error, the Supreme Court affirmed. View "Oregon v. Ziska" on Justia Law

Codefendants Fessenden and Dicke jointly owned a horse, which they kept on Dicke’s property. Dicke’s neighbors called the sheriff’s office to report that the horse appeared to be starving. An officer with specialized training in animal husbandry and in investigating animal cruelty was dispatched to investigate. In consolidated criminal appeals, the issue presented to the Supreme Court was whether the officer violated Article I, section 9, of the Oregon Constitution or the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution when, without a warrant, he entered private property, seized the horse, and took the horse to a veterinarian. The Court concluded that the officer acted lawfully because he had probable cause to believe that defendants were committing the crime of animal neglect and reasonably believed, based on specific articulable facts, that immediate action was necessary to prevent further imminent harm to and the death of the horse. The Court affirmed the decisions of the Court of Appeals. View "Oregon v. Fessenden" on Justia Law

Defendant was convicted of resisting arrest for violating the terms of his parole. Defendant argued on appeal that an "arrest," as used on ORS 162.315, required that a person be restrained or placed in custody for the purpose of charging that person with an offense. Defendant argued that because a parole violation was not an "offense" as defined in ORS 161.505 and because he was restrained for a parole violation, officers had not placed him under restraint "for the purpose of charging him with an offense." Upon review of his appeal, the Supreme Court concluded that an arrest for a parole violation qualified as an arrest for the purposes of ORS 162.315, and affirmed his conviction. View "Oregon v. McClure" on Justia Law

A jury found defendant guilty of murder. The Court of Appeals reversed and remanded the case based on its conclusion that the trial court had erroneously admitted eyewitness testimony of two witnesses that identified defendant as the perpetrator. On review, the Supreme Court concluded that the trial court properly admitted the identification testimony of one of the witnesses. The Court also concluded that any error admitting the testimony of the other witness was harmless. Accordingly, the Court reversed the Court of Appeals and affirmed the trial court's judgment. View "Oregon v. Hickman" on Justia Law

Defendant was charged with soliciting another person to commit aggravated murder. Evidence presented as trial showed that defendant asked the other person to deliver certain information to a third person which defendant thought would cause that third person to commit the murder. The issue this case presented to the Oregon Supreme Court was whether that evidence was sufficient to establish defendant solicited another to commit aggravated murder. The trial court held that the evidence was sufficient; the Court of Appeals affirmed. After its review, the Supreme Court agreed with the lower courts and affirmed too. View "Oregon v. Everett" on Justia Law

This case came before the Oregon Supreme Court on automatic appeal. Defendant Michael Washington was sentenced to death for the aggravated murder of Mohammed Jabbie. Defendant raised 22 alleged errors from both the guilt and penalty stages of his trial. The Supreme Court took each in turn, found no reversible error, and affirmed defendant's death sentence. View "Oregon v. Washington" on Justia Law

In October 2009, a jury found petitioner guilty of one count of second-degree assault constituting domestic violence, one count of possession of methamphetamine, and two counts of endangering the welfare of a minor. The trial court entered a judgment of conviction and sentenced defendant to 76 months in prison and 36 months of post-prison supervision. A year later, petitioner filed a pro se petition for post-conviction relief. The post-conviction court appointed counsel for petitioner. Petitioner's counsel then filed an amended petition for post-conviction relief, in which petitioner alleged that he had been denied effective assistance of counsel in various respects, in violation of the Oregon Constitution and United States Constitution. Specifically, petitioner alleged that his criminal trial counsel had been ineffective in failing to meet with and prepare a witness, who was present during the incident and was interviewed by the police after petitioner's arrest; in failing adequately to "investigate" the victim's hospital records; in failing to offer the victim's medical records into evidence; and in failing adequately to cross-examine the victim's treatment provider. Petitioner attached to the amended petition the indictment, judgment, and trial transcript from his criminal trial. The issue this case presented to the Supreme Court for review centered on a provision of the Post-Conviction Hearing Act (PCHA), The Court concluded that that statute requires a petitioner to attach materials, including the petitioner's own averments of fact, that address each element of each asserted ground for relief and that, if presumed true, would permit the post-conviction court to determine that the petitioner was entitled to post-conviction relief on that ground. The post-conviction court granted the state's motion to dismiss, concluding that the materials that petitioner had attached to his petition were insufficient to meet the statutory requirement. The Supreme Court found that petitioner met the attachment requirement of the Act with respect to his first ground for relief but not with respect to his second, third, and fourth grounds for relief. Therefore, the Court affirmed in part and reversed in part the decision of the Court of Appeals and remanded the case to the post-conviction court for further proceedings. View "Ogle v. Nooth" on Justia Law