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Multnomah County District Attorney Rod Underhill announced Tuesday that he will step down July 31—five months prior to his planned Dec. 31 retirement—and cede command to Mike Schmidt, who was elected to succeed Underhill as the county's top prosecutor.
The Oregonian first obtained Underhill's letter to staff Tuesday afternoon.
"We are in the midst of what I hope and believe will be monumental and lasting societal change," Underhill said in an all-staff letter announcing his resignation. "As human beings and as public servants, we must reject racism, bigotry and hatred. George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and many others should not have had to die to cause us to collectively rise up and shout from our streets that black lives matter and to demand essential and lasting systemic change."
Underhill, who has worked in the district attorney's office for the past 32 years, says he consulted with both Gov. Kate Brown and District Attorney-Elect Mike Schmidt before making his decision.
Prior to being elected in May, Schmidt positioned himself as a reform candidate who seeks to make sweeping changes to the county's criminal justice institution. He's garnered support from left-leaning criminal justice advocates for his stances on several issues, including plans to appoint a hate and bias crimes prosecutor, to prioritize mental health counseling for inmates, to create a unit specifically for a gender-responsive approach to prosecution, and to eliminate the cash bail system in the state.
"My term expires in six months," Underhill wrote in his all-staff letter. "It would be shortsighted of me and unfair to the office and our community to spend my remaining time advocating for and enacting that strategic vision, and then looking to DA-Elect Schmidt to begin that process anew, and potentially differently, in January. I have always been guided by the principle of doing what is right for our community and putting the office in that position would not be right."
Mike Schmidt's campaign issued a statement regarding the announcement Tuesday night.
"At this critical moment in our nation's history, Multnomah County is ready for real change. Every day for the past 19 days, Oregonians have taken to the streets to demand justice for those killed by police and to call for true accountability in law enforcement," Schmidt said. "In order to move forward, we must be willing to recognize and call out the systemic racism in our criminal justice system and other institutions. We should start by listening to the voices of Black people and other people of color, and most importantly, we have to be prepared to turn speeches and protests into major reforms."