State v. Mills

Article I, section 11, of the Oregon Constitution provides that, among other things, “[i]n all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall have the right to public trial by an impartial jury in the county in which the offense shall have been committed.” At issue in this case is whether that provision implicitly requires the state to treat the location where the offense was committed as a material allegation, which it must prove beyond a reasonable doubt. The state contends that nothing in the wording of Article I, section 11, requires such proof. In the state’s view, the constitution merely…