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District attorneys outline legislative priorities, including court-process fixes and discovery-cost funding
Summary
Amanda Dalton, speaking for the Oregon District Attorney’s Association, summarized a broad legislative agenda that includes court-process fixes, behavioral health proposals, extradition technical fixes and a request that counties continue to receive state funds for discovery costs.
Amanda Dalton, representing the Oregon District Attorney’s Association, told the joint Judiciary informational meeting that prosecutors and their staff developed a multi-part package to address prosecutorial and victim-service needs across the state.
Dalton said the association convened ideas from deputy district attorneys, victim advocates and elected district attorneys, then vetted and prioritized concepts that prosecutors see “not working” on the ground. She described the package as “somewhat modest” but targeted to immediate operational problems.
Among bills Dalton described were a behavioral-health package (filed as a House committee bill), court-process and evidence-authentication fixes (including expedited grand-jury transcript release and clarified authority to image digital devices of homicide victims), narrow extradition-law technical fixes to allow local execution of release agreements, sentence-enhancement proposals for suspects who flee or elude officers under aggravating circumstances, and several court-case “fix” bills that clarify defenses and how separate harms are treated in domestic-violence contexts.
Dalton said the association is negotiating with other stakeholders and that agreement so far is limited. “I think we only have agreement on 1 thing which is the release of grand jury records,” Dalton said. She said the association uploaded materials and bills into the committee’s public record for review.
On discovery and indigent-defense costs, Dalton said counties receive state allocations through the Office of Public Defense Services (OPDS) and urged continued reimbursement. “The legislature allocates, I think anywhere from 6 to 7 million to counties through OPDS primarily for indigent defense discovery costs,” she said, and said that in small counties discovery expenses can amount to roughly $150,000–$200,000 annually, “and frankly, you know that's a DDA salary.”
Dalton described the association’s broader priorities as pragmatic fixes for evidence handling, child-sex-abuse-material prosecutions, and narrow statute clarifications that prosecutors say are necessary after recent court decisions. She said some proposals are being held together in omnibus Senate packages for negotiation, and that many items remain under discussion.
Ending: Dalton presented her association’s package as a framework for negotiation and asked the committees to review the uploaded materials; she said more detailed debate and amendment will follow in committee work sessions.
