Steve Doell receives NCVLI’s Victim Advocacy Award

NCVLI’s Legal Advocacy Award recognizes crime victims’ rights attorneys who have dedicated and committed their time to representing victims of crime in the criminal justice system.

About Steve Doell

Steve Doell is a native Oregonian. He was raised in North Portland and was educated at St. Cecelia Elementary School, North Catholic High School in Portland and Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington. Following school, he served in the Oregon National guard for six years. Steve’s professional career was in the automotive aftermarket, as a sales representative with Borg Warner Corporation for three years and in sales management and marketing with Tenneco Automotive for seventeen years. Steve and his former wife Colleen have two children; Scott and Lisa. Lisa was murdered when she was twelve years old, by a violent juvenile who was a stranger to her, on October 21, 1992.

Since 1994 Steve has been a crime victims advocate and lobbies for crime victim rights, criminal justice policy, and public safety issues.

He has served on several governmental committees and councils. These include The Governor’s Task Force on Juvenile Crime, Governor Kulongoski’s Public Safety Review Task Force, the Attorney General’s Task Force on Restitution for Crime Victims, the Advisory Committee to the Crime Victims Compliance Project, and the Advisory Committee to the local Project Safe Neighborhoods Federal program. He has served as a member of the Director’s Advisory Council for the Oregon Youth Authority since the council’s inception in 1997. Steve is a member of Parents of Murdered Children, Portland Chapter and Crime Victims United of Oregon. He is President of Crime Victims United (CVU).

Steve was instrumental in the passage of Ballot Measures 10, 11, and 17 in 1994. Measures 10 and 11 involved minimum mandatory sentences for certain violent crimes and sex crimes. Measure 17 provided that inmates must be involved in work and on the job training programs while incarcerated. He was very closely involved with the passage of Measures 26, the Constitutional foundation for public safety and sentencing laws in Oregon, and Measure 40, Constitutional Crime Victims’ Rights, both on the ballot in 1996. Measure 40 was thrown out by the Oregon State Supreme Court in 1998 based on the constitutionality of the presentation to the voters, not the substance.

He spearheaded the campaign that passed four Crime Victims’ Rights Measures in the November 1999 special election to replace Measure 40. He led the NO campaign on Measure 94 in 2000, the repeal of Measure 11, which was defeated by a margin of 3 to 1 by Oregon voters.

In addition to ballot measures, Steve, representing CVU, has been successful in the passage of many laws and referrals through the legislature. Most notable of these are The Oregon Child Abuse and Murder Statute, Jessica’s Law for Oregon, and The Aggravated Vehicular Homicide Statute that targets repeat drunk drivers.

He played a major role in the referral and passage of Measures 51 and 52 in May 2008, which gives crime victims the right to judicial review when their constitutional rights are violated. In 2008-2009 he acted in concert with many stakeholders in the system to write and pass Senate Bill 233. SB 233 is the enabling legislation that sets the framework in which Measures 51 and 52 will operate in the courts to protect the rights of crime victims in Oregon.

In 2009 Steve was part of a team that created Oregon Crime Victims Law Center (OCVLC), a clinic for crime victims who have had their rights denied. Steve currently serves as vice-president of the board of directors of OCVLC.

About the NCVLI Legal Advocacy Award

NCVLI’s Legal Advocacy Award recognizes crime victims’ rights attorneys who have dedicated and committed their time to representing victims of crime in the criminal justice system.