April 28, 2022 3:50 a.m.

Democratic U.S. Senator Ron Wyden is critical of Governor Kate Brown’s decision to grant clemency to a man serving a life sentence for aggravated murder, in a case out of Douglas County.

In March, Brown gave 45-year old Kyle Hedquist clemency for his 1995 conviction of killing teenager Nikki Thrasher. Hedquist was released to live in a Salem home on April 15th, and placed on GPS monitoring.

News Radio 93-9 FM and 1240 KQEN reached out to Wyden for comment. Wyden said, “This clemency decision is wrong on every level, starting with its callousness toward the crime victim’s family and extending to all Oregonians counting on public officials to make decisions with public safety in mind”. Wyden said, “Plain and simple, I oppose this grossly irresponsible use of the clemency powers “.

On Tuesday, Wyden spoke with Douglas County District Attorney Rick Wesenberg. In February, Wesenberg sent a letter to Brown saying that his office, who originally prosecuted the case, was opposed to granting any form of clemency to Hequist. In the letter Wesenberg went into great detail about the case.