Oregon Supreme Court 03-25-11
by: Abassos • March 24, 2011 • no comments
Read the full article for details about the following new cases:
- Felony Elude/Resisting Arrest - Tribal Officers are Officers
- Evidence - Motive
Felony Elude/Resisting Arrest - Tribal Officers are Peace Officers
A tribal officer is an officer for purposes of Felony Elude and Resisting Arrest. The Supreme Court rejects the Appellate Court's view that both statutes require that, to be a peace or police officer, a person has to be organized or designated under state law. The Supreme Court says that the word "includes" usually indicates a nonexclusive list in the same way that "includes, but not limited to" would. The particulars of the list itself indicate that the legislature intended to include all police officers. Since tribal officers are clearly police officers (uniform, weapons, car, badge, organization, love of doughnuts), they are officers for felony elude and resisting arrest. State v. Kurtz
Evidence - Motive - Satanism
Where defendant was charged with aggravated murder, evidence of satanism as a motive in his previous murder conviction was admissible to establish a possible motive in the penalty phase of the current case. The Court rejects all the following arguments:
- It's not relevant (S.Ct: motive is relevant to future dangerousness and can also say something fundamental about one's character)
- It's substantially more prejudicial than probative (S.Ct.: It's pretty probative and the prejudicial impact was tempered by evidence that it was a music thing, not a religion thing.)
- It violated his freedom of religion (S.Ct.: A neutral rule regarding the admissibility of motive is fine. That's very different than a law or ruling that targets religious conduct.)
Sentence of death affirmed. State v. Brumwell
