Ryan Haas

Around 4:30 a.m. on Friday, March 20, 1998, Johnny Shattuck sat up in bed, awoken by “yelling and screaming.”

In 2022, Oregon lawmakers unanimously supported a bill to pay people who were wrongfully convicted in the state. Advocates say that isn't happening.

Three unknown people may have been involved in the 1998 murder of Harriet Thompson in Salem. Though Salem police have gathered credible evidence pointing to other suspects in the past 25 years, prosecutors have consistently stated Jesse Johnson is their only suspect. Johnson's convicted for that crime was overturned in 2021. Illustration by Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB

A Salem police detective points to a faint spot of blood on the bathroom sink inside Harriet Thompson's apartment in March 1998. DNA tests would later reveal that this blood did not belong to Thompson or Jesse Johnson, the man who was eventually convicted of her murder.

After denying repeated requests for interviews and answering direct questions from OPB, the Marion County District Attorney's office issued a lengthy statement outlining its view on Jesse Johnson's release.

Detectives from the Salem Police Department examine evidence outside Harriet Thompson's home on March 20, 1998. Jesse Johnson was convicted and sentenced to death for Thompson's murder in 2004. Documents obtained via public records request / OPB

Jesse Johnson, sporting a new hat, relaxes on a park bench and tries out his new cell phone in Portland, Ore., Sept. 8, 2023, days after his release from Marion County Jail in Oregon. Johnson spent 25 years in prison and police custody for the 1998 murder of Harriet Thompson, a murder he consistently denied committing. Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB

Two officers are on leave related to the shooting A man shot and critically injured by Milwaukie police earlier this week was unarmed, according to the Clackamas County District Attorney’s Office.

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Washington’s Department of Ecology could not say definitively where the smell came from, but noted a Longview paper mill may have been involved.