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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In her final weeks in office, Gov. Kate Brown is commuting the sentences of those on death row and dismantling the state execution chamber in an effort to effectively end capital punishment in Oregon. -
Nearly 200 people currently and formerly held in custody at the Sheridan Federal Correctional Institution had claimed cruel and unusual punishment over prison conditions during and after the COVID-19 pandemic; all claims were dismissed Tuesday -
Oregon voters passed a measure that strips language from the state鈥檚 constitution allowing for slavery and involuntary servitude when used as a punishment for a crime. -
Oregon is once again being sued over the state鈥檚 troubled public defense system that鈥檚 left hundreds of people facing criminal charges without the court-appointed attorneys that they鈥檙e entitled to under the U.S. Constitution. -
Jessica Kampfe, who heads a public defense nonprofit in Portland, would take over a state agency that has left hundreds without attorneys -
Stephen Singer, who until August was the executive director of the Office of Public Defense Services, says his firing violated state laws designed to protect whistleblowers and charged the head of the Oregon Supreme Court with violating her authority under state law. -
Wednesday鈥檚 decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals builds on a 2018 ruling involving the city of Boise, which found a person cannot be punished for sleeping in public if there鈥檚 nowhere else for them to go. -
In the race to be Oregon's next governor, the Democratic candidate says she鈥檒l continue Oregon鈥檚 moratorium on capital punishment, while the Republican and unaffiliated candidates indicate they will revoke it, which could allow the state to resume executions. -
During a tense hearing in U.S. District Court, the U.S. Department of Justice said conditions at the Bureau of Prisons complex in Sheridan had improved. Oregon鈥檚 Federal Public Defender was skeptical. -
Oregon鈥檚 public defense system is under severe strain and Chief Justice Martha Walters wrote that the 鈥渘eed for change is too urgent鈥� to delay -
鈥淚 could see the blood dripping off his head onto the ground,鈥� one witness inside the prison told the federal public defender鈥檚 office. -
鈥淭he plan I am seeking is one that proposes immediate steps that will enable [the Public Defense Services Commission] to fulfill its obligation to provide lawyers for those who have a constitutional right to representation,鈥� Oregon Supreme Court Chief Justice Martha Walters wrote.
