OR Supreme Court Orders Immediate Release of GP Woman from State Prison
The Oregon Supreme Court this week ordered the immediate release of a Grants Pass woman who had been sent back to prison after Governor Tina Kotek revoked an earlier commutation of her sentence.
The Oregon Capital Chronicle reports the court found Kotek lacked the authority to return the woman to Coffee Creek Correctional Institution because her sentence had expired.
It is the second time in two years that Oregon appellate courts have weighed in on the governor's clemency powers, which can include reducing a person's sentence or granting pardons. In the latest ruling, the Oregon Supreme Court found the governor's clemency power -- specifically the ability to yank a person's commutation and return them to prison -- "is not without its limits."
The case centered on Terri Brown, a 49-year-old woman sentenced in 2017 to a total of five years in prison and two years of post-prison supervision for mail theft convictions out of Josephine County.
In December 2020, then-Governor Kate Brown commuted Terri Brown's sentence as part of a large wave of pandemic-era early releases. The commutations were conditional -- people could be returned to prison to serve out the rest of their sentence if they broke any laws.
Terri Brown walked out of prison on December 23, 2020. About four months later, she was back in court, accused of violating the terms of her probation. She pleaded no contest and was sentenced to a 30-day jail stint. In February 2023, Brown got word from the state that her post-prison supervision had concluded and, as the court ruling notes, "was no longer subject to any sentence."
Brown had been released from prison to Washington County where she remained under post-prison supervision. Kotek revoked Brown's commutation in December 2023. Two months later, Terri Brown was sent back to Coffee Creek, the women's prison in Wilsonville.
