“On October 21, 1982, Lisa Marie Doell was killed while walking from school to her grandparent’s home in Lake Oswego. Police later found a license plate at the scene and identified the driver as Andrew Whitaker. Whitaker told the police ‘It wasn’t an accident; I killed her on purpose.’ Friends later testified that he drove the car to their house, showed them the dent that Lisa’s body had made on the hood of the car, and laughed. He told his friends that he had finally acted on one of his impulses. Ten jurors wanted to convict Whitaker of murder, but two jurors believed that he should be charged with second-degree manslaughter because Whitaker claimed that he suffered from long-term depression and was in a mental fog when he killed Lisa. In 1994, Lisa’s dad, Stephen Doell, helped promote a statewide voter-approved ballot known as Measure 11 (13).”
THE HISTORY OF MEASURE 11
Prior to the “get tough” on crime movement of the 1970's, the
…show more content…
The measure, which passed by a margin of 65% to 35%, initially established mandatory minimum sentences for 16 crimes (14). The measure stipulates that the offender completes their entire sentence with no possibility of early release or leave for good behavior, parole, or any other reason (4). Nevertheless, a court can impose a longer sentence if allowed by the law (11). In addition to M11, voters passed Measure 10, which enabled the state legislature, with two-thirds of each house, to change M11’s guidelines (11). Oregon’s legislature has passed several Senate and House bills amending M11. In its present form, Measure 11 provides sentences for 21 violent or sexual offenses (14), including murder, specific types of manslaughter, assault, kidnapping, rape, sodomy, sexual abuse, robbery, and unlawful sexual penetration (8). As of April 1, 2016, Measure 11 has convicted 6,286