Judge Refuses Measure 11 Sentence February 17, 2010
Posted by FairSentencing in : Current News , trackbackApplause erupted Tuesday in a Marion County courtroom as a judge departed from a tough sentencing law approved by Oregon voters, deciding on probation for a former prison officer convicted of assaulting an inmate.
Circuit Judge Albin Norblad told the ex-officer, Jamin Dumas, that his conviction for second-degree assault didn’t warrant the 70-month prison term dictated by Measure 11.
“You screwed up. You slipped once. That doesn’t deserve five to seven years,” Norblad said.
The judge’s announcement of the probationary sentence triggered applause from a courtroom packed with supporters of Dumas, 60. The contingent backing the former officer included representatives of the NAACP, corrections officers and Dumas’ wife and eight children.
“I am ecstatic,” Barbara Dumas said outside the courtroom. “My husband was not guilty to begin with. Our main concern right now was to keep him out of prison. He does not belong in prison.”
Norblad invoked rarely used judicial discretion in deviating from Measure 11, approved by voters in 1994 to toughen punishment for violent offenders.
Senate Bill 1049, passed by the Legislature in 1997, allows judges to depart from the mandatory sentences prescribed by Measure 11 in certain cases of assault, kidnapping and robbery. Judges typically use such latitude only when offenders, such as Dumas, have histories clear of prior criminal conduct.
Norblad previously found Dumas guilty of second-degree assault and official misconduct in connection with a May 2008 incident at the Oregon State Correctional Institution, an 890-inmate medium-security prison in southeast Salem.
The corrections corporal entered the cell of a defiant inmate who repeatedly subjected him to racial slurs. Dumas used physical force to subdue the inmate, who suffered a broken collarbone.
Dumas was placed on leave during an investigation of the incident. He received a letter March 9, 2009, notifying him that he was being fired.
Faced with criminal charges, Dumas waived his right to a jury trial. Norblad recently found him guilty after a two-day trial in December.
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This story is o UNFAIR to all of us who have family members and loved ones serving Measure 11 sentences. Why didn’t the judge say this in my son’s case? He could have…but he didn’t. This is a grown adult man- my son was only 15 yrs old and mentally and emotionally disabled but he is serving a Measure 11 sentence- the judge DID NOT take his conditions into consideration. Yes- I am totally against Measure 11 but this case is so unfair to those of us suffering because our CHILDREN are doing these long harsh sentences!
I agree!! My 2 sons did 30 seconds of alcohol induced stupidity and got 5 years each. DOC has deemed them to not be a threat to society, and not likely to reoffend, and yet both of these 1st ime offenders got 5 years. Yes they needed a time out, but not 5 years! The only good that will come out of this is that they won’t be alcoholics, but it has only taken a year for that to happen. Both boys are minimum security, and not likely to reoffend, but they will sit there with the murders, and child molestors and waste Oregons money instead of actually being reformed.
During their stint, their brains will go to mush, their children will be raised on welfare, and they will come out to a world that has advanced, and they won’t have the skills to get a good job in a technologically advanced society.
Guess what that does………………………….makes uneducated, hopeless people that can only pray to have a job that pays the bills to support their families.
If the sentancing would have been specific to their crime, they would have gone to an in-patient drug and alcohol program, done community service and anger management classes. They would have worked for their freedom, instead, they sit there, wasting time, energy, space and money.
And if anyone twould think about their future, they would have been sentanced to get more education.
Guess what that does…………………..creates a man that can find a job, and can pay for his family, along with using the tools he has learned to stay out of the bottle and out of prison. It’s a no brainer!
I was in that prison when that happen, and he was definitely in the wrong. Nevertheless the fact that he had been a correctional officer is what made that all come out that way. The judge only found him guilty in the first place is to make it look like he was treating everybody the same, and he wasn’t because he rescinded his decision. Oh and here’s the clincher he is back to work at that prison! WOW!