Oregon: Simple. Just Get a Pardon!

In 2005, 27-year old Veronica Rodriguez was found guilty of first-degree sexual assault after being accused of running her hands through the hair of a 13-year-old and pulling the back of his head against her covered chest in the middle of a crowded game room at the Boys and Girls Club in Hillsboro. Rodriguez, who has served 1 year in a correctional facility (and faces the possibility of five more) has appealed to the state Supreme Court. Under Measure 11, a 1994 voter-approved ballot initiative setting mandatory minimum sentences, Rodriguez originally faced six years and three months in prison, but Judge Nancy Campbell gave her 16 months arguing the Measure violated the state constitution as cruel and unusual punishment. Judge Campbell also said the Measure 11 sentence would “shock the moral sense of all reasonable persons”. In December, however, the state Court of Appeals ruled unanimously that the remaining five years of the Measure 11 sentence should be served. Enter Kevin Mannix the original Measure 11 backer. Mannix recommends that Rodriguez simply ask the governor for clemency. See full story here.