State v. Pearson
State v. Pearson
Opinion of the Court
Defendant, who was 17 at the time of his crimes, was charged and tried as an adult for killing his mother and shooting his father. Defendant pleaded guilty to one count each of aggravated murder, ORS 163.095; attempted murder, ORS 161.405; ORS 163.095; and conspiracy to commit murder, ORS 161.450; ORS 163.095.
On appeal, defendant argues for the first time that, under the United States Supreme Court decision in Miller v. Alabama, 567 US 460, 132 S Ct 2455, 183 L Ed 2d 407 (2012), it was error for the trial court to impose the 40-year term of incarceration.
An error is “plain” only “if (1) the error is one of law, (2) the error is obvious, not reasonably in dispute, and (3) the error appears on the face of the record, so that we need not go outside the record to identify the error or choose between competing inferences, and the facts constituting the error are irrefutable.” State v. Corkill, 262 Or App 543, 551, 325 P3d 796, rev den, 355 Or 751 (2014) (internal quotation marks omitted). Here, it is not “obvious” that defendant’s
Affirmed.
In accordance with defendant’s plea agreement, the trial court merged defendant’s guilty plea for conspiracy to commit murder with his guilty plea for attempted murder, resulting in a conviction for attempted murder.
Defendant suggests that the reasoning in Miller means that his sentence is unconstitutional under both the state and federal constitutions.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.