Gregory McKelvey Corvallis Gazette-Times 2011 Human, All Too Human
the first time i heard about oregon State's strangulation sentencing problem, we were talking Mike Marshman and what he did to his son.
That Oregon is light on strangulation.
Nigel Jaquiss just wrote a brilliant article about a personal story of long term Domestic Violence strangulation and Oregon's failure to fully criminalize strangulation at a felony sentencing level.
Experts say there are two key areas in which Oregon lags behind other states.
The first is the penalty for strangulation, which Oregon law defines as "knowingly imped[ing] the normal breathing or circulation of the blood of another person" by placing one's hands around the other person's neck or blocking the person's nose or mouth. (Bradley says her husband put his hands around her neck repeatedly. In deposition, he said he could not remember ever doing so.)
In many states, including Idaho and Washington, strangulation is a felony. In Oregon, it is usually a misdemeanor. That means on the Oregon side of the Columbia River, the maximum penalty for strangulation is typically a year in prison; in Washington, it's 10 years.
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