Big Racketeering News

This wikilog article is a draft, it was not published yet.

by: Ryan • November 7, 2014 • no comments

My preceding post addressed whether the predicate offenses in a racketeering charge merged into the racketeering charge itself. Today, the Oregon Supreme Court granted review to a case that presents the following questions:

On review, the issues are:

(1) Are racketeering and its underlying predicate offenses part of the same continuous and uninterrupted course of conduct, for purposes of consecutive sentences under ORS 137.123(5)?

(2) When a defendant is convicted of both (a) racketeering based on certain underlying predicate offenses and (b) the underlying predicate offenses themselves (as individual criminal offenses), may a trial court sentence the racketeering conviction consecutively to the sentences imposed on the underlying predicate offenses withoutmaking findings of fact under ORS 137.123(5)?

Self-evidently, even absent merger, this would greatly reduce the defendant's exposure.

Merger wasn't argued at either the COA or the circuit court, so that issue will not be before the OSC.

Ryan