Janowski v. Board of Parole & Post-Prison Supervision, 349 Or. 432

Summary

The Supreme Court of Oregon held that the Board of Parole and Post-Prison Supervision had authority under former ORS 163.105 to override a 30-year mandatory minimum sentence for aggravated murder after finding that a prisoner was capable of rehabilitation within a reasonable period. The court further held that the parole matrix system governed the Board’s release-date decisions after conversion of the sentence to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole. The court affirmed in part and reversed in part the Court of Appeals’ decisions in the consolidated Janowski and Fleming cases.

Holdings

1. ORS 163.105 (1985) authorized the Board, after the required rehabilitation hearing and finding, to convert the prisoner's confinement to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole, thereby overriding the 30-year mandatory minimum and permitting parole consideration after 20 years.
2. After conversion under ORS 163.105(3) (1985), the Board was required to set the prisoner's parole release date according to the parole matrix in effect when the prisoner committed the offense.
3. Janowski was not automatically entitled to immediate release; the Board first had to conduct a hearing and set a parole release date under the applicable matrix. Once a release date was set, the Board could postpone release only on the statutory grounds provided by ORS 144.125 (1985).

Questions Presented

1. Whether ORS 163.105 (1985) authorized the Board of Parole and Post-Prison Supervision to override a 30-year mandatory minimum sentence for aggravated murder and release a prisoner on parole after 20 years upon a finding of likely rehabilitation.
2. Which statutes and administrative rules governed the Board's parole-release decision after it converted the prisoner's confinement to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole.
3. Whether the applicable parole matrix required the Board to set release dates for Janowski and Fleming, including whether Janowski was entitled to immediate release because his matrix range had expired.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded