DataOregon  

*These factors track the process--i.e. the effort and obstacles--for obtaining data from individual states under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request and appeals process. These factors do not measure the quality of the data; only the process of attempting to obtain the data.

• 57

  days to respond to our FOIA request

• $225.00

  cost to request information

Oregon took 57 days to respond to our FOIA request with a PDF of people incarcerated at a cost of $225.00. Oregon’s statutes, however, are not specific for felony murder. As in most other states, Oregon does not have a statute specifically codifying felony murder, which would make it easier to identify and isolate felony murder conviction data. Instead, as in most other states, felony murder is defined within its other murder statute, making it impossible based on the data provided alone to distinguish and identify who is incarcerated for felony murder specifically.

Although we appealed the FOIA results and asked for more specific data related to felony murder, Oregon did not send over anything specific to felony murder.

In Oregon, felony murder is defined in the second degree murder statute (Or. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 163.115).

Prosecutors can charge and convict any person of murder without having to prove that they intended to cause another person’s death. Prosecutors must only prove that a person or an accomplice committed or attempted to commit a specified felony and that a death occurred “in the course of and in furtherance of the [felony] … or during the immediate flight therefrom.”

A conviction for felony murder carries a sentence of life sentence with the possibility of parole after 25 years.