Conrad Wilson
Oregon Public BroadcastingConrad Wilson is a reporter and producer covering criminal justice and legal affairs for OPB. Prior to coming to OPB, he was a reporter at Minnesota Public Radio. Before that he ran the news department at an NPR affiliate in Colorado. His work has aired on Marketplace and NPR's Morning Edition and All Things Considered. He has also written for Mashable, The Oregonian, Business Week, City Pages and The Christian Science Monitor. Conrad earned a degree in international political economics and journalism from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.
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An Oregon prison guard sanctioned the attack of a man serving time at the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution in 2022. After the attack, the Oregon Department of Corrections failed to meet the standards of medical care to treat 鈥渆xtreme and debilitating injuries.鈥� -
The race pits Republican Will Lathrop, an experienced prosecutor pushing a public safety message, against former Speaker of the House Dan Rayfield, a Democrat. -
In less than a month, Oregon will end its nearly four-year experiment with drug decriminalization. Beginning Sept. 1, possession of small amounts of drugs will again be a misdemeanor crime. -
The ruling won鈥檛 immediately allow Oregon cities to begin penalizing unhoused people for resting on public property, due to a state law that puts limits on sweeping public camping bans. -
The change comes as a result of a 2021 class-action lawsuit that resulted in refunding $77,041 to 870 people currently in prison. -
A criminal charge has been dismissed against a U.S. Forest Service employee arrested in 2022 by a rural Oregon sheriff after a prescribed burn on federal land unexpectedly spread to private property and burned roughly 20 acres. -
In a 2-1 decision, the appeals court called Oregon鈥檚 public defense system a 鈥淪ixth Amendment nightmare,鈥� referencing the part of the U.S. Constitution that requires the state to provide defense attorneys to those it charges with crimes if they cannot afford a lawyer. -
The state鈥檚 high court ruled Gov. Tina Kotek didn鈥檛 have the power to revoke a commutation after a person completed their sentence. The justices wrote that Terri Lee Brown鈥檚 鈥渋mprisonment is unlawful.鈥� Kotek revoked Brown鈥檚 commutation last year. -
Nathaniel Cheney was arrested April 2, after he was indicted March 12 on two counts of damage to an electrical substation in Clackamas County in 2022. -
People caught by police with drugs will face misdemeanor charges starting Sept. 1. -
Gov. Tina Kotek鈥檚 announcement, though no surprise, makes certain Oregon鈥檚 drug decriminalization experiment is over. -
State estimates show 1,333 people will be convicted of drug possession and 533 could go to jail every year under House Bill 4002. The numbers suggest that the system Oregon lawmakers envisioned to replace Measure 110 鈥� in which drug users can avoid criminal consequences through treatment 鈥� will only go so far.
