State v. Bartol

Summary

The court affirmed the defendant's aggravated-murder conviction but vacated his death sentence. It held that, after the legislature reclassified the conduct underlying the conviction as first-degree murder not punishable by death, maintaining the preexisting death sentence violated Article I, section 16, of the Oregon Constitution. The court concluded that the legislative reclassification showed the conduct was outside the narrow class of crimes warranting execution and lacked the required moral distinction from crimes not punishable by death.