Oregon Supreme Court

Oregon Supreme Court sides with 5 juvenile killers

Salem, OREGON – The Oregon Supreme Court has sided with five juvenile killers who’ve long maintained the state treats them more harshly than adult murderers. The high court Thursday called on the Oregon Board of Parole to schedule hearings and even decide on release dates for two of the five.

One of the "Oregon Five" is Shane Sopher. He was sixteen when helped his then-girlfriend kill her mother. Under rules set by the Oregon Board of Parole Sopher – and four other juvenile killers who committed their crimes in the 1990s – could serve as many as forty years before receiving any kind of parole hearing. For adult killers it could be as little at twenty years. Here’s Sopher speaking from prison in 2008.

“They’re treating us a separate class from every other offender who’s ever been convicted in Oregon," Sopher said.

Now, after years of litigation, the Oregon Supreme Court in a 4-2 decision has sided with the “Oregon Five.” The court agreed the Parole Board’s treatment of these inmates is unlawful. As for Sopher, the court recommended the parole board schedule a hearing for him and consider setting a release date.

Oregon Supreme Court reverses aggravated murder conviction in ...

The Oregon Supreme Court reversed the 2006 aggravated murder conviction of a Banks man on Thursday, because it found that a jury instruction incorrectly stated the law on accomplice liability.

Petronilo Lopez Minjarez, 32, was sentenced to life in prison for his role in helping his father kidnap, assault and kill Darvin Lopez Jovel, 18, of Aloha.

A Washington County Circuit Court jury found that Lopez Minjarez and his father went to Lopez Jovel's home in November 2004 seeking vengeance on the family because the victim's father was having an affair with Lopez Minjarez's mother.

Lopez Minjarez's defense attorneys argued that Lopez Minjarez's father, Petronilo Lopez Lopez, enraged over his wife's affair, led the violence against the teen and acted as the sole killer, leaving his son to hide in a McDonald's bathroom while he fatally shot the teen in the woods.

Lopez Lopez was believed to have fled to Mexico, where he could not be extradited for a death penalty case.

The victim's blood was found in Lopez Minjarez's truck, home and on his clothes. That and eyewitness testimony helped tie him to the murder, and the state argued that he was present for the teen's fatal shooting.

Prosecutors asked jurors to find Lopez Minjarez guilty of murder even if they believed the defense, arguing that Lopez Minjarez should still be held responsible because he knew his father would kill the teen.

Lopez Minjarez appealed the conviction, claiming the trial court wrongfully instructed the jury to consider him liable for murder even if he wasn't present for the killing.

The contentious jury instruction told jurors that a defendant is liable for any crime that is the "natural and probable" outcome of a crime in which the defendant aids and abets.

The court of Oregon in July 2010 revealed that the instruction did not accurately reflect the law of accomplice liability. When the Supreme Court of Oregon considered the case, he agreed.

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Oregon, Memorial of the Legislative Assembly of Oregon territory, relative to their present situation and wants. August 10, 1848

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