The following is from the, OregonLive web site. URL is


http://www.oregonlive.com/oregonian/stories/index.ssf?/base/news/1175223335114420.xml&coll=7



"The law does not require a person to avoid or escape a fight with someone else before using deadly force in self-defense, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday in reversing an Oregon murder conviction.

""The Legislature did not intend to require a person to retreat before using deadly force to defend against the imminent use of deadly physical force by another,"" the unanimous decision said.

The court also took the unusual step of flatly saying that a 1982 state Supreme Court ruling was wrong to create the escape-or-retreat requirement since that language is not in the law itself."


about time,
Hoopie

Amazing ruling for Oregon...

Same law passed by legislature in Arizona a couple years ago. Now requires the prosecuting attorney to PROVE it WASN'T self defense.

MY goodness,that seems strange comiing from a (blue) state like oregon.Maybe we can start calling it ORYGUN.Ha!

Except for the People's Republic of Kalifornia I, being from the east, find it hard to believe that western states would be "blue". What am I missing? I can see why the east would be liberal, but for heaven's sake why would the west be?

Jean - large influxes of Kalafornies to Oregon/Washington, plus their own home bred liberals in the Portland/Seattle area, have swung the balance from right to left.

I knew some things about Seatle but had no idea that Oregon was hit that bad. Goes to show one has to be on the ball. Also in the east we get eastern press propaganda and little from the western states unless you really follow the internet news sources. I think I will open up some web paper site from that area so I can be more informed. Thanks for the info.

Except for the People's Republic of Kalifornia I, being from the east, find it hard to believe that western states would be "blue". What am I missing? I can see why the east would be liberal, but for heaven's sake why would the west be?

Interesting question. Oregon (especially Portland) was settled by New Englanders...many Bostonians, and Portland's name comes from a fellow from Portland, Maine.

What's new is that many NY'ers moved to CA in the 40's and 50's and their liberal kids moved up north after going to U of Cal @Bezerkely. Lots of the liberal politicians that have a lock grip on power in Oregon came up from CA in the 60's and 70's. Lots of CAers followed in the 90's to get away from the big city mess.

The influx to Seattle from CA is mostly from the 80's and 90's.

Sorry to say, the CAer's are like a bad rash. They're leaving something they don't like, but they bring it with them, because the problems are as much in their heads and souls as in their environment.

Interesting question. Oregon (especially Portland) was settled by New Englanders...many Bostonians, and Portland's name comes from a fellow from Portland, Maine.

What's new is that many Nycers moved to CA in the 40's and 50's and their liberal kids moved up north after going to U of Cal @Bezerkely. Lots of the liberal politicians that have a lock grip on power in Oregon came up from CA in the 60's and 70's. Lots of CAers followed in the 90's to get away from the big city mess.

The influx to Seattle from CA is mostly from the 80's and 90's.

Sorry to say, the Cars are like a bad rash. They're leaving something they don't like, but they bring it with them, because the problems are as much in their heads and souls as in their environment.

Levirate:

It must be my age. You reminded me of the Portland, Oregon's long history with Portland, Maine. But what is still a mystery is that back then when the Mainers moved to Oregon they were a real conservative bunch. They were basically Wasp's. English, Protestant, Republican etc. I really can't see how they could have brought the liberal view there at this time in history. Maine was solidly Republican way back when we were part of Massachusetts (until 1820). It became liberal just after WW2 when we also had a great migration to our state from Massachusetts, Connecticut, and other liberal New England states.
Remember we had the heart of the Know Nothing Party and the KKK up to about the 1930's.

MY goodness,that seems strange comiing from a (blue) state like oregon.Maybe we can start calling it ORYGUN.Ha!
Can't believe it is from our state??????????

MY goodness,that seems strange comiing from a (blue) state like oregon.Maybe we can start calling it ORYGUN.Ha!

Bearfat, I grew up there. We've always called it Orygun so those silly Easterners would know how to pronounce it properly.

Oregon has always been pretty much a blue state until you get east of the Cascades or into the smaller logging towns. Since the big companies cut their own throats by clear cutting everything as fast as they could in the 60's and 70's, a lot of those logging towns have started to turn purple as the mills have had to close. It's easy to blame the tree huggers when the ones who cut you out of trees for a job were the ones who used to give you a paycheck. Misplaced loyalty to management who were never loyal to their workers. Been guilty of that myself.
Last time Oregon was really a red state was in the 1920's, about the time the Klan held one of it's largest rallies and parades ever in the west, in downtown Portland in 1921. The 1940's were the big swing from red to blue when the shipyards were really booming. The influx of workers and unions jobs really helped the economy and built a large chunk of Portland, not to mention Vancouver WA and Seattle.

The eighties and nineties were like a bad rerun of what happened in California when they passed Prop 47 (If I remember the name of the bill right) that so screwed up their housing market. The Californians began moving north bringing their baloney with them. The house my parents bought in 1973 for 48K was taken back from my mom by the bank in 1992 and promptly sold for approximately 250K in a marginal neighborhood. High property taxes and a poor job market for 50 year old women.
Lot's of gentrification supposedly going on in those old inner city neighborhoods. Property values went crazy all over the Portland Merto area. I moved north in 1993 and my family is still down there. My wife's family is still in Oregon but lives on the coast. It's mind boggling what they are paying for homes now. Glad they cleared that up and you don't have to retreat from it to defend yourself. The court made a sensible move. I wonder if California will decide it's sensible next?

To quote an old cliche: Will "Nevah Hoppen"

That is an amazingly "Right" decision, coming from Oregon. Lets hope it holds up. A similar law was recently signed in Texas and so far as I know has not been challenged. The fact that we even need to have these kind of laws is testament to how the liberal "pc" crowd has almost done away with our most basic of rights. That being, the right to defend oneself.
Lets take a few minutes and write these judges and thank them for making the right decision in this case. Who knows, it may set a precedent and make a difference the next time a case like this comes up somewhere else....maybe in your neighborhood....Later,B.

I agree...AMAZING decision .... for Oregon.