Career
He has served as District Attorney for Clatsop County since 1994. He frequently writes and speaks about capital punishment, and is known for his belief that the death penalty is justified in some cases. He is often quoted as a spokesperson on behalf of the National District Attorneys Association.
Marquis earned a law degree from the University of Oregon.
He later served as Deputy District Attorney for Lincoln and Lane counties, and then as Chief Deputy District Attorney for Deschutes and Lincoln counties. Marquis was appointed District Attorney in Clatsop County by then-Governor Barbara Roberts after his predecessor was convicted and disbarred for gross prosecutorial misconduct.
Marquis was elected in 1994 and reelected in 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, and 2014
Marquis served as a superdelegate to the 1996 Democratic National Convention. In 2014 Marquis was named by the ALDF as one of the "Top Ten Animal Defenders.
Marquis coauthored Debating the Death Penalty, and numerous other articles that were cited by United States. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in his concurrence in the Supreme Court"s decision in Kansas v.
Marsh. Marquis worked as a reporter for the Los Angeles Daily Journal in the early 1980s and the speechwriter to California Attorney General John Van de Kamp in the mid-1980s. Marquis authors a blog which features a list of published articles and commentaries, including book reviews commissioned by the Wall Street Journal of Sebastian Junger"s A Death in Belmont and John Grisham"s The Innocent Manitoba
Marquis is often solicited to write articles on the death penalty, such as the lead article in a special section published by the Los Angeles Times prior to the execution of Stanley "Tookie" Williams.
Cable News Network"s Jeffrey Toobin moderated the event at the Directors Guild Theater in Manhattan, New York City. Marquis also served on Oregon"s Criminal Justice Commission from 2005 to 2009, served as vice chair of the Animal Legal Defense Fund. and was elected in August 2009 to the American Bar Association"s Criminal Justice Leadership Council for a three year term. Marquis is an outspoken prosecutor who is frequently asked to "special prosecute" conflict of interest cases for other District Attorneys.
During the trial of Sandra Jones (Michael"s mother) he was disqualified by the judge, Harl H. Haas, Junior., with Marquis then filing a judicial fitness complaint.
In addition to having worked for more than six years, and recently started on 1st and 3rd Monday"s as a jazz disc jockey at KMUN-FM, since 1994 Marquis has also played the cameo role of the Sheriff in the community play Shanghaied In Astoria.
