Morrison v. Board of Parole & Post-Prison Supervision

374 P.3d 948, 277 Or. App. 861, 2016 Ore. App. LEXIS 493
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedApril 27, 2016
DocketA157849
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 374 P.3d 948 (Morrison v. Board of Parole & Post-Prison Supervision) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Morrison v. Board of Parole & Post-Prison Supervision, 374 P.3d 948, 277 Or. App. 861, 2016 Ore. App. LEXIS 493 (Or. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

LAGESEN, J.

Petitioner, a dangerous offender, see ORS 161.725, ORS 161.735, and ORS 144.228, seeks review of a final order of the Board of Parole and Post-Prison Supervision. In the order, the board (1) found that defendant remained dangerous and, therefore, was not eligible to have a parole release date set; and (2) determined that petitioner’s next parole consideration hearing should be held in 2019, six years after the date of the previous hearing. We review for legal error and substantial evidence, (including substantial reason), ORS 144.335(3), ORS 183.482(8), Jenkins v. Board of Parole, 356 Or 186, 205, 335 P3d 828 (2014), and affirm the board’s order.1

Where, as here, a prisoner has been sentenced as a dangerous offender, the board is prohibited from setting a parole release date for that prisoner unless the board is able to find affirmatively that the prisoner is no longer dangerous or, alternatively, that the prisoner remains dangerous but can be adequately controlled in the community with available supervision and treatment. See ORS 144.228(1)(b)(A) (2011).2 When the board is unable to make the predicate findings to set a release date for a prisoner sentenced as a dangerous offender, it must schedule a new parole consideration hearing to reconsider the matter in the future. Id.; ORS 144.228(1)(b) (1987).

Under the version of ORS 144.228 in effect at the time of petitioner’s crimes in 1988, the board was required to hold that new parole consideration hearing no later [864]*864than two years from the date of the previous hearing. ORS 144.228(1)(b) (1987). In addition, the statute authorized the board to entertain requests for earlier parole consideration hearings. ORS 144.228(1)(c) (1987).

In 2009, the legislature amended ORS 144.228 to change that procedure. Or Laws 2009, ch 660, § 4. The changes allow the board to schedule parole consideration hearings up to 10 years apart. Id. Specifically, as a result of the amendments, when the board is unable to make the predicate findings to set a release date, it is authorized to set the next parole consideration hearing on a date “no less than two years, and no more than 10 years, from the date of the previous review.” ORS 144.228(1)(b)(A). In order to set the next hearing date more than two years out, the board must find “that it is not reasonable to expect that the prisoner would be granted a release date before the date of the subsequent hearing.” ORS 144.228(1)(b)(B). As before, once the board has set the next hearing date, a prisoner may still request that the board hold an earlier parole consideration hearing. ORS 144.228(1)(c). Now, however, if the board has set the date for the prisoner’s next parole consideration hearing “more than two years from the date of the previous hearing,” the prisoner must wait at least two years from the date of the last hearing to submit a request for an earlier hearing. Id.

In this case, petitioner is serving “dangerous offender” sentences imposed pursuant to ORS 161.725 and ORS 161.735 for crimes that he committed in 1988. Following a parole consideration hearing in 2013, the board made two determinations. First, the board found that petitioner remained dangerous and concluded that, for that reason, he did not currently qualify to have a parole release date set under ORS 144.228(1). Second, as authorized by ORS 144.228(1)(b), as amended in 2009, the board determined that petitioner’s next parole consideration hearing should be held in 2019, based on its finding that it was not reasonable to expect that petitioner would be granted a release date before that time. As required by statute, the board made that finding using the criteria established in administrative rules that the board has adopted for that very purpose. ORS [865]*865144.228(1)(b)(C); OAR 255-062-0016. Had the board applied the version of ORS 144.228 in effect in 1988, the board would have been required to schedule petitioner’s next parole consideration hearing for a date in 2015, no later than two years after the date of his last one. See ORS 144.228(1)(b) (1987).

Before us, petitioner challenges both aspects of the board’s order. He argues that that the board’s finding that he remains dangerous is not supported by substantial evidence or substantial reason, and was rendered in a “fundamentally unfair” manner that violates due process. As to the board’s determination that his next parole consideration hearing should be in 2019, petitioner argues that the board’s use of the 2009 version of ORS 144.228 to make that determination violates his rights under the ex post facto clauses of Article I, section 21, of the Oregon Constitution, and Article I, section 10, of the United States Constitution. Petitioner contends that the version of ORS 144.228 in effect at the time of his crimes required the board to schedule parole consideration hearings every two years and that the 2009 changes to the law, which allow for less frequent parole consideration hearings, have increased the risk that he will have to serve a longer term of incarceration than he would under the prior version of the statute.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
374 P.3d 948, 277 Or. App. 861, 2016 Ore. App. LEXIS 493, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/morrison-v-board-of-parole-post-prison-supervision-orctapp-2016.