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ORS 161.737

Known as the Oregon Criminal Code

The act spans §§ 161–161 (150 sections).

Applied in 37 court decisions — leading case State v. Davis (1993)

Most recently applied in State v. Gardner-Rolph (December 2025)

1989 c.790 §77; 1993 c.334 §6

How often courts cite this section

1992200020102020202540
citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

(1) A sentence imposed under ORS 161.725 and 161.735 for felonies committed on or after November 1, 1989, shall constitute a departure from the sentencing guidelines created by rules of the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission. The findings made to classify the defendant as a dangerous offender under ORS 161.725 and 161.735 shall constitute substantial and compelling reasons to depart from the presumptive sentence as provided by rules of the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission.

(2) When the sentence is imposed, the sentencing judge shall indicate on the record the reasons for the departure and shall impose, in addition to the indeterminate sentence imposed under ORS 161.725, a required incarceration term that the offender must serve before release to post-prison supervision. If the presumptive sentence that would have been imposed if the court had not imposed the sentence under ORS 161.725 and 161.735 as a departure is a prison sentence, the required incarceration term shall be no less than the presumptive incarceration term and no more than twice the maximum presumptive incarceration term. If the presumptive sentence for the offense is probation, the required incarceration term shall be no less than the maximum incarceration term provided by the rule of the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission that establishes incarceration terms for dispositional departures and no more than twice that amount. However, the indeterminate sentence imposed under this section and ORS 161.725 is not subject to any guideline rule establishing limitations on the duration of departures.

Official source: Oregon State Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Oregon statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.