Oregon Governor Kate Brown is kicking up some dust across the State of Oregon during her final days in office. The Democrat reportedly believes that taking a life does not advance justice and Tuesday she announced the commuting of death penalty sentences for 17 individuals sitting on Oregon’s Death Row to life sentences without the possibility of parole. Oregon is one of 27 states that authorizes the death penalty, but a moratorium on executions in Oregon was put in place by former Governor John Kitzhaber back in 2011, and continued with Governor Brown. Governor-elect Tina Kotek says she also supports the moratorium but for religious reasons. As of Tuesday, Governor Brown has commuted the sentences of 1,189 incarcerated people while in office. One of the 17 to receive a new life sentence is Christian Michael Longo. He was the father of three on the Central Coast who ran his family into a bad financial corner and decided he wanted to start over with a new life. He killed his wife and children. Stuffed them into suitcases and dropped them in the cold waters of Yaquina Bay at Newport and Alsea Bay at Waldport back in 2001. Longo fled to Mexico to start his new life, but was eventually captured by U.S. Marshals. He was sentenced to death in 2003. Also receiving a new life sentence is Clinton Wendess Cunningham who picked up a hitchhiker near Coos Bay in 1991, drove her up Hwy. 38 where he stabbed her 37-times and then hid her body under a logging road bridge just east of the Elkton Tunnel. Governor Brown’s order took effect Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2022.
