Unnecessary Rigor 2025
Monday 11/17 @ Noon
Unnecessary Rigor:
How to challenge sentences and conditions of confinement with this state constitutional clause
WEBINAR – Online Via Zoom
Date: Monday, November 17
Time: 12:00 – 1:00 pm
*Cost: Free, you must register to attend.*
CLE: Approval pending for 1 general credit.
Who May Attend:
Attendance is open to defense lawyers, habeas practitioners, and those professionals and law students directly involved in the defense function.
*Members, follow the prompt to register at left. Nonmembers, please call OCDLA at 541/686-8716 or send an email to jroot@ocdla.org.
Article 13 of the Oregon Constitution provides that “No person arrested, or confined in jail, shall be treated with unnecessary rigor.” Attorneys have successfully invoked Article 13 to challenge prison conditions and pre-trial process for their clients. A new law review article unearths new history about Article 13 and argues that it should also apply to sentencing. The animating principle of Article 13 is to protect human dignity, and it offers far more expansive protection than the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. In this CLE, attorney Tara Herivel describes how she has used Article 13 to improve conditions of confinement in Oregon prisons, and UO law professor Kristen Bell explains how and why defense attorneys should use Article 13 to challenge excessive sentences.
Presenters:
Kristen Bell, University of Oregon School of Law
Tara Herivel, Portland
Kristen Bell is an Associate Professor at University of Oregon School of Law where she teaches criminal law. Her research focuses on parole, sentencing, and state constitutional law. Her most recent article unearths new history about the unnecessary rigor clause, a relatively unique clause found in five state constitutions (Oregon, Tennessee, Indiana, Utah, and Wyoming). Bell is a graduate of Stanford Law School and earned her PhD in philosophy at UNC-Chapel Hill. She clerked for the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, worked as a Soros Justice Fellow, and was a Senior Liman Fellow and Lecturer at Yale Law School. Her work has been published in the Cardozo Law Review, Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, Berkeley Technology Law Journal, and Law and Philosophy.
Tara Herivel is a prisoners' rights attorney in private practice in Portland, Oregon. She litigates conditions of confinement cases in state habeas and federal 1983 cases, and practices federal criminal defense. She is a trailblazer in applying the unnecessary rigor clause in the Oregon Constitution to obtain relief for incarcerated people. She has obtained a range of injunctive relief for prisoners, including gender affirming care for transgender prisoners, prohibitions against use of segregation, and orders for mental health and medical care.
During the pandemic, she created and directed a habeas project that resulted in over 600 petitions for habeas relief from covid exposure which led to new and progressive habeas case law in Oregon.
She is also an author and editor. She co-authored and edited two nationally recognized anthologies about prison: Prison Profiteers (The New Press: NY, 2008) and Prison Nation: The Warehousing of America’s Poor (Routledge Press: NY, 2003). Both books won literature awards, including a 2003 book award from the Gustavus Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights, and a 2009 literature award from the National Council on Crime and Delinquency. She also authored the habeas chapter for the 2021 Criminal Law Formbook for the Oregon Criminal Defense Legal Association, as well as articles about developing state habeas corpus in Oregon.
This program will be recorded and made available to OCDLA members only.
How to challenge sentences and conditions of confinement with this state constitutional clause
WEBINAR – Online Via Zoom
Date: Monday, November 17
Time: 12:00 – 1:00 pm
*Cost: Free, you must register to attend.*
CLE: Approval pending for 1 general credit.
Who May Attend:
Attendance is open to defense lawyers, habeas practitioners, and those professionals and law students directly involved in the defense function.
*Members, follow the prompt to register at left. Nonmembers, please call OCDLA at 541/686-8716 or send an email to jroot@ocdla.org.
Article 13 of the Oregon Constitution provides that “No person arrested, or confined in jail, shall be treated with unnecessary rigor.” Attorneys have successfully invoked Article 13 to challenge prison conditions and pre-trial process for their clients. A new law review article unearths new history about Article 13 and argues that it should also apply to sentencing. The animating principle of Article 13 is to protect human dignity, and it offers far more expansive protection than the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. In this CLE, attorney Tara Herivel describes how she has used Article 13 to improve conditions of confinement in Oregon prisons, and UO law professor Kristen Bell explains how and why defense attorneys should use Article 13 to challenge excessive sentences.
Presenters:
Kristen Bell, University of Oregon School of Law
Tara Herivel, Portland
Kristen Bell is an Associate Professor at University of Oregon School of Law where she teaches criminal law. Her research focuses on parole, sentencing, and state constitutional law. Her most recent article unearths new history about the unnecessary rigor clause, a relatively unique clause found in five state constitutions (Oregon, Tennessee, Indiana, Utah, and Wyoming). Bell is a graduate of Stanford Law School and earned her PhD in philosophy at UNC-Chapel Hill. She clerked for the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, worked as a Soros Justice Fellow, and was a Senior Liman Fellow and Lecturer at Yale Law School. Her work has been published in the Cardozo Law Review, Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, Berkeley Technology Law Journal, and Law and Philosophy.
Tara Herivel is a prisoners' rights attorney in private practice in Portland, Oregon. She litigates conditions of confinement cases in state habeas and federal 1983 cases, and practices federal criminal defense. She is a trailblazer in applying the unnecessary rigor clause in the Oregon Constitution to obtain relief for incarcerated people. She has obtained a range of injunctive relief for prisoners, including gender affirming care for transgender prisoners, prohibitions against use of segregation, and orders for mental health and medical care.
During the pandemic, she created and directed a habeas project that resulted in over 600 petitions for habeas relief from covid exposure which led to new and progressive habeas case law in Oregon.
She is also an author and editor. She co-authored and edited two nationally recognized anthologies about prison: Prison Profiteers (The New Press: NY, 2008) and Prison Nation: The Warehousing of America’s Poor (Routledge Press: NY, 2003). Both books won literature awards, including a 2003 book award from the Gustavus Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights, and a 2009 literature award from the National Council on Crime and Delinquency. She also authored the habeas chapter for the 2021 Criminal Law Formbook for the Oregon Criminal Defense Legal Association, as well as articles about developing state habeas corpus in Oregon.
This program will be recorded and made available to OCDLA members only.
Agenda
12:00 pm Welcome & Introduction
Presentation followed by Q&A
1:00 pm Adjourn
CLE: 1 general, pending approval
12:00 pm Welcome & Introduction
Presentation followed by Q&A
1:00 pm Adjourn
CLE: 1 general, pending approval
Registration Instructions
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